Kagami Hiiragi vs the World!
by Peroth
Summary: Kagami's life is pretty sweet, she's got everything planned out, until one day she meets a hyperactive blue girl that leaves her absolutely breathless, and if she wants to date her, she has to fight her way through a legion of petty exes. Now easy to read
1. Just a Long Walk North

So, I'm not going to knock anybody intelligence in the matter but I'd like to clarify that this is a Lucky Star and Scott Pilgrim crossover. I'd been planning on something like this for a while and I really like the ideas I wrote down, so this may be something I'll follow through with.

Due to the huge differences between certain characters though I'm going to be listing which Lucky Star character is replacing which Scott Pilgrim character, and say no more. The changes in personality should be readily apparent as the story goes on.

Scott Pilgrim replaced by Kagami

Ramona Flowers replaced by Konata

Wallace Wells replaced by Tsukasa

Kim Pine replaced by Miyuki

Stephen Stills replaced by Yui

Julie Powers replaced by Yui's unnamed fiancé, who I have dubbed Shinji.

All the evil exes have been replaced and will not be revealed until their time comes.

I've done my best to integrate each character into their original's place while maintaining the original personality. Tsukasa, for instance, is now the world's most adorable drunk. Miyuki is now a slightly more snark-tastic encyclopedia. Kagami actually has a job and motivation, but that's part of the problem.

With that all explained, please enjoy.

**Chapter 1: It's Just a Long Walk North**

Sometimes, when she wasn't thinking too much, or simply stared long enough at a clock and then the sky, or if her sister asked the question, or if she was impatient, Kagami wondered if the sun had a bed-time and a work-time just like everyone underneath it. Well of course you could say it metaphorically took a nap at night and woke up and worked during the day, but what she wondered was if it had an alarm clock. A really shitty one. She wondered this because, as she stared at the sky one morning at 7:30 AM on the dot, on a cooling Summer day on the tenth of August, the sky was still dark and somewhat foreboding. A chill wind whipped past her bare legs and she shivered, her teeth chattering. Something about this whole day seemed ominous from the moment she got up but nothing would stop her from reaching work.

"Finally…!" She muttered as she watched the weekday morning bus make its stop in front of her. She climbed in and paid the fee, her legs gaining their feeling back as the warm bus air reinvigorated her. She wasn't alone this strangely cold, dark morning, much to her relief. Like her, they all wore thick clothing to combat the abnormally cool weather, and like her, they were all still shivering a little. She sat and the bus carted her to work. She checked in to work at 8:59, thirty-one minutes early. She ran her ID Card through her office door and entered when it unlocked, and took a seat at her desk. She logged in, and began to work.

She had a good job, working as an order filer for a large Pharmaceutical company, making sure the right people got the right chemicals and the right bottles and etcetera as well as filing away the packing orders. It was a busy job with such a large company, not that she minded.

11:30 rolled by, and she hit the send button on her computer one final time and picked up her phone. She dialed, and let the phone ring once, twice, then… "Mmm…" There was a smack of dry lips and then a yawn. "Morrrnninng…" Tsukasa moaned through the phone, making Kagami sigh.

"Tsukasa it's 11:30." Kagami said with some irritation, though she honestly wasn't that angry. It was a typical thing for Tsukasa to sleep in so late. She would probably have slept in later if she hadn't called. "Don't you think it's time to get up?"

"Uuh… Hold on…" There was a shuffling, and Kagami listened as Tsukasa slid out of bed, stumbled against a wall, knocked over a pile of cans and then the click on a light switch. There was a shriek, and Kagami pressed her forehead against the desk and groaned. "Okay okay okay, I'm fine, just, just turned the lights on a bit too quickly… Okay, um, what?"

Kagami sighed again and sat up, her forehead red. "Tsukasa, you have to think before you do anything like that…"

"I'm sorry sis…" Her little sister of eight minutes and seventeen seconds apologized, and Kagami sighed. "What was it you called for again…?"

"It's 11:30."

"Uh-huh."

"In the morning." Kagami's voice grew a little irritated.

"Yeah." She could almost hear Tsukasa nodding. It took Kagami a few moments to realize she wasn't getting it.

"Shouldn't you be up by now?"

"But… Kagami, I _am _up." Kagami groaned and pressed her forehead to the desk again, this time a little harder, and a little less pressing, a little more smacking.

* * *

><p>"Yo, Hiiragi." Having skipped on breakfast, Kagami was more than a little a little happy to be on her lunch break. She was in the small sandwich café just outside the company, and enjoying something vaguely Italian that she, in all honesty, was sure wasn't made as the Italians intended, when one of the waiters came around. She knew him, he was a sort of old friend in the sense that one of your friends is dating him, but you two secretly can't really get along because one of you is kind of a bitch and the other of you is kind of a dick and you have no tolerance for either of that.<p>

"Oh god… What is it Shinji?" Kagami sighed, making Shinji's glare harden even more.

"It's fantastic to see you too. Alright, here's the deal. Yui's working tomorrow night when I'm going to be starting my party. Since she can't be there to sing that means I'm not going to have a grand champion for the karaoke contest. I've been pulling strings and I think Miyuki's going to let me borrow her copies of Guitar Hero, and I can shoe-horn it in in place of the karaoke contest for the grand prize." He explained in bored, condescending tone that he'd always had.

"Shinji, that's flattering, really, and while I'm so happy and honored to be invited to one of your swingy little parties, I'll have to-"

"Oi! Don't you try and weasel out on me, I called Tsukasa just to make sure you had absolutely nothing to do tomorrow night, and if you're going to be practicing your guitar anyways, you might as well do it at my party for-"

"What? What's your prize? More beer? You know I don't drink!"

Shinji's eyes narrowed and he made a small growling noise. "I wouldn't make my real friends swill on that simple filth water as a reward. We're talking genuine Russian Whiskey, created and bottled as a peace offering to Genghis Khan during his initial take over of Russia, and stored for hundreds of years by Rusky scribes. It is the. _GREATEST._ Whiskey this world has to offer." The smirk of triumph on his face made her consider another place she could stuff her sandwich.

"And you just happen to have Genghis Khan's sacred fire water." Kagami finally asked in disbelief, looking for other alternatives to her sandwich to force down his throat.

"Look, don't ask and I won't tell, but if you win you get the booze-"

"That I'll never drink."

"- which you can sell on eBay or something! Good god Kagami you are the least imaginative person ever."

"Okay, few things." Kagami set her sandwich down and stared him straight in the eye. Their eyes locked, their glares meeting in mid-air and sparking viciously. "I don't drink." Shinji grunted and rolled his eyes. "Two, I can play guitar, not Guitar Hero. _Huge_ difference."

"You just press four-buttons and strum a little switch, it's not that hard, Kagami."

"It's not like playing guitar at all!"

"Okay, lets look at it like this: you suck anyways so _somebody _would beat you with or without the actual guitar, I just need somebody in a band to make people think there's an actual challenge to get them motivated." He said it like it was a matter of fact, gesturing to her glass of water. "You don't have crap to lose and it's better than sitting around playing with your lady boner all night. Maybe you'll have fun and get laid. God knows you need it."

Kagami sat there, looking aghast at him, before he grabbed her head with one hand with a bright smile. "Excellent answer! I expect you at my place tomorrow night at seven, with your guitar. Don't be late and if you eat any of the pizza I will gut you with your pick. Ta!" He walked away with an exaggerated swagger, and Kagami groaned. Was there any real choice? She supposed not, she didn't have anything better to do. She was looking forward to her college classes starting up again, she'd have less free time to just bum around and an excuse to avoid Shinji's parties. And other things she didn't want to do. It'd be so much easier too, nothing to worry about but work.

She checked her watch and went to work early, suddenly not hungry anymore, to finish her day.

* * *

><p>Kagami returned home after work and an hour of overtime. She lived on the west side of town, her work on the east. The bus dropped her at the bus stop and walked down the street. It was a small, bustling little market made for all the western apartments to be within easy distance. Competing diners, hair-dressers, and the like. It was a good location to live, really, since everything was within easy walking distance. Everything but a comic book shop, not that it mattered to her.<p>

She walked to her big red brick apartment building that served as her home and took the stairs to the third floor, walked to door 74, and unlocked it with her key. She entered, shutting the door behind her, and turned. The entire apartment wasn't very big, but it could fit two people in it. Uncomfortably. The living room was the first area, with a pair of bean bag chairs and a table only a few inches off the ground covered in beer cans and magazines. A half-eaten pizza was on the table, a half-eaten slice laying on the uneaten half. There were grease stains in the wood.

The small TV was resting against the counter where the kitchen connected to the living room, and there was a dirty dish out. The fridge was barely full, and Kagami made a mental note to go grocery shopping soon. She opened a Tupperware container, hoping something edible was inside… And found herself grossly disappointed. Emphasis on the gross. She had never seen so much green on a Shepherd's Pie… A pity. She made a mental note to go shopping tomorrow. She couldn't subsist on just Pocky and Jellybeans… Okay, yes, she could, but she was so careful with her weight. Down to the tiniest milligrams… Tsukasa considered it unhealthy, yet she freaked out and ran like crazy if she ever went above one hundred and forty pounds herself. It was a once a month thing. Speaking of Tsukasa…

She walked back into the living room and kicked a flipped over bean bag chair, revealing the snoozing, half-dressed girl underneath. She had her same lilac-colored hair, the same wide purple eyes, the same body-structure, yet a completely different personality… And of course, Tsukasa's hair was cut short with a bright yellow ribbon tied in it, adding to her cuteness. Kagami gently turned her sleeping sister over, and couldn't help but smile at her cute, sleeping face. She was like a little angel being tucked in. A beautiful dreamer. She flicked off the pizza crumbs around her mouth and poked her side gently. "Tsukasa, c'mon sis, wake up."

The poke to her side made Tsukasa opened her mouth and… "Brrr~aaa~aahp!" She burped long and loud, her eyes fluttering open. "Uh… Kagami? You home?" She asked curiously. She turned her head slightly to see Kagami clutching her nose and mouth, pressed against the wall. "Hii~iii Kagami." She called lazily, reaching out with one arm.

"Oh _GOD _Tsukasa, that was… That was the worst thing I've ever smelled!" The eldest of the twins pinched her nose shut and squeezed the tears of disgust out of her eyes, batting them rapidly to get the moisture out. Tsukasa sat up, yawning, and Kagami dodged the wave of smell.

"I guess I should brush my teeth…" The younger sister rubbed her eye while smacking her lips. She stood up wobbly, and giggled as she began to wander towards the bathroom.

"What you need to do is not drink so early! That is incredibly unhealthy!" Kagami shouted after her, standing up and coughing the rest of the smell out. She began to grumble as she collected beer cans and started tossing them in the trash. If her sister didn't have such a high tolerance and a dwarf's liver, she would think she had a bad problem. But no, her sister somehow found an equilibrium between drunk off her tight ass and managing a job as a Sous Chef as well as keeping an active social life.

"But it's so boring without a little drink!" Tsukasa laughed from the bathroom, and started up her toothbrush. "Iz zo muh mun 'm ih go oh onry!" She tried to say through a mouth full of toothbrush and paste, and Kagami rubbed her cheek with a long sigh. Tsukasa continued to talk in a muffled voice while she brushed, pausing briefly to wait for answers to unintelligible questions, but only briefly before continuing to talk.

Kagami ignored her masterfully as Tsukasa walked around the room in an open button-up, wearing only a training bra and a short skirt (and she suspected nothing underneath those), and started to pick up her sister's mess. Not that Tsukasa was always so messy, but she only got clean when sober. She was not sober currently, so she was unhelpful. Kagami stood with the trash bag of beer cans and a pizza crust in her mouth - the temptation too great to resist by now - and dropped both rather suddenly when arms wrapped around her midsection. "Oh Kagami, you're so busy and such a work-a-holic. ~When is Tsu~ka~sa time~?" The lilac haired little party girl asked while running her fingers along Kagami's trim belly.

"Uh!" Kagami slipped out of Tsukasa's grasp with a heavy snarl. "You're disgusting… You never do anything productive when you aren't working, you just get drunk and eat and watch TV." Kagami sighed, picking up the trash again to dump it.

"Nuh uh!" Tsukasa stamped her foot lightly. "I also breath, sit, digest, go to the bathroom, and make out drunkenly with Miyuki!"

Kagami all but vaulted into the wall.

* * *

><p>There was nothing to her left or her right. There was nothing above her. If she stared into the inky blackness around her, she would see nothing but darkness. But, beneath her, there was a road made of a solid, white light extending far into the expansive darkness. As far as her eyes could see, it went for miles upon miles, never seeming to end until it met the bottom border of an enormous white castle. Staring at it, a sense of warmth and determination filled her. The enormous castle she had set her sights on since she was ten, where there was money, wealth, all her dreams come true whether it was a field of unicorns or a fleet of Italian-made cars and endless waves of gasoline for them all.<p>

She did not look left or right as she walked towards the castle. She did not look up as her feet fell on the white road. She did not turn around as the castle glowed with its promise. She'd been walking this road for ten years. The road had always been long, but the castle had never been so large. Every day it grew ever so slightly, and every day it reaffirmed her hopes. It just got bigger and bigger, and in her mind, the bigger it grew, the more she wanted it. It grew more lavish and beautiful with each passing year.

She did not look left or right. She did not look up. She did not look back. She just marched towards the castle with the same determination she'd had ten years ago. Every step she took was a step closer. That was how she felt. Every inch taken was an inch earned. The more inches she took and earned, the quicker she'd be at the castle. It was a grand and beautiful castle, solid white in a sea of black. She would march in and make it hers. She did not imagine there'd be inhabitants, for the road was so long and so seemingly endless she doubted anybody but herself had the willpower, had the determination, had the desire she did to walk this road. It was a fantastic feeling to know she was the only one to be this far. Even though everything else had faded away long ago, she saw the castle. All she needed was the castle. She'd made it this far and nobody else had, why should she turn back now?

The castle was rather violently jerked from view, and her vision was suddenly filled with blue and white. She blinked rapidly, her entire body feeling rather sore as she stared at the white and the tiny blue river… Which wiggled, and moved, and disappeared. She turned her head and realized everything had gone all sideways. No… She lifted her head. She herself was sideways, laying on her stomach.

She heard a moan, and she slowly lifted up, turning her head to see the strangest thing. It was a river of blue hair, coming out of the head of the tiniest girl she'd ever seen, with big dark goggles and a pained expression on her face. Her nose was bleeding, and she was cross-eyed. Kagami stood, staring at the blue-haired girl who was on the road with her. But from where? When she turned her head she could see the inky blackness… It was gone, replaced with a very dark veil, revealing a… Street? A street across town? The very street she worked on? To her right she could see the park, the park in the north of the city, and underneath her the road began to pale and become thinner.

"Uuuh…" She gasped, and the blue-haired thing looked straight at her. Kagami felt her whole body seize up, a tenseness she couldn't explain grasping her heart as she stared at the thing's softly bleeding face, and to her horror she found the other girl was absolutely _beautiful._ She had always had a thing for long hair, for the color blue, and that beauty mark served to only enhance her soft face and high tight cheekbones and that small forehead. Not even the small trail of blood from her nose could stop the sheer force of her looks from penetrating Kagami. Her breath became short and her chest rose and fell heavier and more rapidly.

"Where the heck did you come from?" The girl asked groggily, pinching her nose shut as she searched the pockets of her thick jeans. "I don't know if it's your thing but showing up right in front of people in a rush is a crappy power, though at least I wasn't on a yellow Vespa…" She looked up into Kagami's shocked eyes and lifted up the goggles covering her own eyes, revealing emerald pools that I could describe in two paragraphs if I like you people enough, and Kagami stared back. So… Green… "Hey, pigtails, do you speak?" The shorter girl asked. Kagami never figured she'd like short people. "Uh… Yeah, hi, I-am-a-hu-man-be-ing. I-come-in-peace." Kagami's mouth opened and closed slowly, and she gulped dryly. The little thing's blue eyebrow raised. "Uh, yeah, so, great fish impression and all but I need to go. Sorry about interrupting-" she stared around the dark world, and then at the white castle, which was quickly shrinking and losing focus "-whatever this is but I'm running twenty seconds late. Try to learn English!" The little girl began to slide away, and Kagami noticed she was wearing golden in-line skates. She blinked after the girl, and fell to her knees, panting as the flickering white road began to strengthen, and the walls became black again. The castle, however, became dull and out of focus.

* * *

><p>It took her a full minute to realize the blinking light she was staring at was her computer, and the darkness around her was just her room. She threw off her blanket, letting the spinning fan cool her down, her entire body sweating. She ran her hand down her bare body. She never overheated in bed like this before, ever, not since she switched from PJ's to simple bare nudity. She sat up, staring around, feeling the small, wet beads of sweat that had been on her back had been soaked into the mattress. With a tiny, disgusted groan, she laid down again, letting the fan cool her.<p>

Her nipples were stiff, she was covered in moisture, and her eyes couldn't focus. She could feel herself shaking like crazy. Her dream… She hadn't dreamed of anything but the road in ten years. That girl was no ordinary girl… She couldn't explain it. It was like a living dream… In a dream… Damnit, she was thinking like Tsukasa here. Miyuki would just tell her it was something she ate before she went to bed, but a pack of Pocky never stopped the Road before… She just needed to close her eyes.

So she did.

* * *

><p>"Miss Hiiragi!" Kagami's eyes shot open and she lifted her head, staring around slowly at all the curious, and disturbingly enough, aroused faces of the many men her age in the room. "<em>Miss <em>Hiiragi!" Kagami stared straight forward at the stern, white-haired head of Miss Clerval, her wrinkled face scrunched up in stern contempt. "What is the answer to number three!" "I-I ju-just give me a moment!" She stared down at the paper in front of her and quickly found question number three. It was in that moment she realized the question was solid gibberish. "Th-… I can't read this ma'am!"

"As I expected of a _stupid teenage girl._ You don't even recognize your native tongue! You _fail!_" Kagami let out a deafening scream, causing Miss Clerval to scream back: "And put your clothes on! I will not stand for this disgraceful flaunting of your nudity _in here_ you little slut!"

Kagami stared down her bare body, then at all the horny, grinning faces, and then to Tsukasa way in the back. Tsukasa waved. "I hear it's good for the skin, sis!" She called.

* * *

><p>Kagami woke up screaming bloody murder. Tsukasa followed soon after, bursting into Kagami's room in only an open bath-robe and a kitchen knife. "Don't rape my sister and I won't cut you, <em>bitch!" <em>Tsukasa screamed in a trembling voice, then stared at Kagami. Kagami stared back. Nothing changed for twenty seconds.

Awkward.


	2. Most Girl Stories Start at Parties

**Don't Most of Your Girl Stories Start at Parties?**

"You look like shit." Kagami opened her eyes slowly, an uncomfortable look on her face. She sat up from the table and looked up to Shinji, who was holding a steaming tray and an annoyed expression. Kagami opened her mouth to say something, then shut it and started to grumble quietly. Shinji snorted, "What, nothing to say? You must be out of your head this morning for real. Anyways, here's your meal." He put the plate of noodle soup in front of her, and Kagami began to eat gratefully.

Not a word passed between the black-haired young waiter and the currently swallowing girl, until Shinji began to drum his fingers. Kagami gave a small moan as he started and she opened her eyes further to glare at him. "Don't you have other customers to go piss off? Christ, with you working here I'm surprised this place gets any business besides me."

"Yet you're still sitting here being served by me despite all your bitching." Shinji pointed out, smirking as she swallowed down her soup rather than retaliate. "Okay, listen up Kagami, you remember that party is tonight, right?" He raised an eyebrow, nearly daring her to try and forget it was.

"… No Shinji, I didn't forget about the party." She finally conceded while staring him straight into the eye. Neither of them looked particularly happy to stare at each other. "Why, and how, could I possibly forget about the damn party?"

"I don't put any extent of failure past you Kagami." He admitted, almost light-heartedly. Kagami grabbed her forehead and suppressed a scream of rage while she swallowed more of her soup down.

"That was almost four years ago! Could you please get over that!" She sneered, her eyes narrowing as Shinji smirked in triumph. Almost four years ago there had been a science experiment in one Coach Wilson's class. This science experiment counted as ten percent of their grade. Kagami and Shinji had been paired together, a terrible mistake to begin with, but it had been done. The project had been finished in exactly three days, four weeks before the deadline. On the last day Kagami was to be the one to bring it to school. It was a simple task. One that a colony of termites and several angry raccoons had smeared across the yard. Shinji never forgot.

"Get me my A average back and we'll talk. You'd better get your game face on Kagami," He stood up and stared her straight in the eye, "'cause if you get your ass knocked out in the first round and you ruin my party, there's going to be hell to pay." He walked away with a swagger.

Kagami was going to gut that son of a bitch some day.

* * *

><p>Kagami wished she could just slip away from the world. She didn't feel good today, not after last night's… Episode. The dream had been troublesome. Every night for the past ten years she had dreamed about the road and nothing more, yet last night all her dreams kept muddling up. There were no castles, no roads, no blankets of darkness to keep her eyes straight, there had been embarrassment after embarrassment. She wasn't sure what unholy curse she'd brought upon herself to dream them but they woke her up endlessly. She had dreams of constant failure, of ignorance, of no money and no future.<p>

She paused and leaned against the building she slept and ate in. She wasn't sure if she wanted to confront Tsukasa today. Tsukasa, tired of the night terrors Kagami had been experiencing, chose to sleep with her. Not that that was embarrassing in and of itself, it was rather pleasant. Having a warm, breathing, familiar body next to her in bed was relaxing. No, it was how Kagami found themselves when she'd woken up. She squeezed her hands into tight fists and blushed heavily, squirming in disgust as she fought the images and… How soft those hands of hers were…

"Oh hell…" She rubbed her forehead and stared up. She knew Tsukasa wouldn't care, she'd probably just laugh about it. Heck, maybe Kagami would laugh about it. A long, uncomfortable, embarrassed laugh, then she'd commit every ounce of willpower she could to never ever remembering that night again. God forbid.

She took to climbing up the stairs, going slowly as she reached the third floor and to her room's door. She took out her key and unlocked it, opening the door to let out a peal of laughter from a very happily giggling girl. Kagami took one long, slow blink as she stared inside, then shut the door behind her. "I… I thought it meant… I mean… That's how people usually describe stuff with it, right?"

"Oh! Oh oh oh dear… My, yes, yes, it's used in that way, just…" Kagami stared at the long, pink locks she recognized so well after years and years of friendship and companionship. "Usually it's describing something that looks like… Oh, you know…" Miyuki continued to giggle to herself, and Kagami took a seat next to the two, eyeing the scrabble board. "Ah! Kagami, welcome home." The tall, curvy young woman said with a brilliantly welcoming smile.

Kagami returned the smile politely as Tsukasa flustered over whatever it had been she spelled. Kagami couldn't tell, the board was full of tiles and she just didn't care enough to try and figure it out. "What brings you here, Miyuki?" Kagami asked. She'd been having such a bad day she couldn't help but let the slightest bit of trepidation in her voice. She hadn't meant it, she wasn't suspicious, there was little to hide about Miyuki. She was an honest girl with not a single bad bone in her body.

She watched with a slight pang of regret as her small twitched slightly, but Miyuki just nodded as she spoke. "You haven't called me in a week, I thought I'd just check up on you." She admitted, her cheeks reddening softly. "N-Not that I don't trust you to do well without me, I just worry sometimes." Kagami cast her eyes downwards.

"Thanks Miyuki. You're a real good friend." She reached over and squeeze the pinkette's hand and Miyuki's smile returned in full. "Work's been a hassle is all, nothing serious, just the deadline for an inspection is approaching. It's possible that we might be getting a new researcher soon, a big name one, and Dr. Day has been pulling his hair out from nervousness. There hasn't been a lot else on my mind lately."

"Oh." Miyuki nodded. She noticed Tsukasa had done the same. "Kagami…" Both girls turned to face Tsukasa, who was looking thoughtful. "Is it making you nervous too?"

Kagami had to think for a moment, but she shook her head. "No, my office is perfect. Dr. Day loves it, calls me the only thing he can rely on… I think I'm alright." Kagami smiled. She was a little nervous. There was a difference between Dr. Day and the inspector. Namely importance to the company shareholders. "Mm, I guess I'm a little nervous. It's the inspector after all, he basically decides if I can keep my job or not…"

"Is that why you woke up last night screaming?" Her sister asked curiously, making Miyuki double-take from the Scrabble board. Kagami's face went beet red as she tried to hide her embarrassment with a mask of utter, twitching calm.

"You woke up screaming? That's awful Kagami, what were you dreaming about?" Miyuki had taken psychology classes in her first year of class and was deeply invested in animals and things that tripped the mind.

"Uh…" Kagami cast her eyes downwards. Did she start with the pit of snakes made of bondage leather, the naked classroom experience, or the one where she found out Tsukasa was pregnant and she herself was the mother? How would she even explain the physics behind that last one! "Standard uh… Embarrassing… Like… Nudity and-"

"Oh! Nudity usually implies-"

"Where were you naked, sis?"

"There were these snakes but there was rope-"

"-chained to an issue and possibly your fear? Where were-"

"Rope… Do we have rope? That sounds fun…"

"-like how does that even work! I didn't even-"

"Um… Maybe you're scared of commitment?"

"I wanna be a daddy someday…" Miyuki and Kagami took the chance to look to Tsukasa, who was popping open the tab of a brightly colored can. "Mmm… Come to papa…" She cooed to the can and drained a good portion into her mouth. She gulped loudly.

"Tsukasa…" Miyuki and Kagami sighed at once. Where she even produced the can was beyond them both. Who she was getting them from was another good question. What started as a little rebellion became little more than a hobby to the youngest twin. She was not, presently, the youngest girl in the room though, as a mouse in the wall had just given birth. Miyuki was also off by a few months. "Speaking of drinking, has Shinji invited you to his party?" The pinkette asked with a curious smile.

That smile disappeared when Kagami moaned out loud and fell onto her back, her eyes screwed shut. "Don't remind me of the damned party! Shinji has been a complete dick about it!" She kicked and flailed her legs like she was trying to throw the stress off of her.

"He told me you were generous enough to offer your guitar skills in place of Yui's voice for the competition…" Miyuki tapped her lower lip softly, making Kagami sit up and glare.

"He all but told me I had nothing better to do so I should show up, so yeah, I'm going to show up. Might as well use the end of the summer to embarrass the living hell out of myself one last time so I'll fondly go back to classes without regret." The main character huffed and laid her head on her arms, and felt something get set on her flat tummy. Tsukasa had drained her first can and had put a second on Kagami's stomach. She considered it for a moment and took it into her hand. "What is this Tsukasa?" She stared at the words on the can and turned it over.

"Something Spanish. I don't know but it's good. Gets you a healthy little buzz." Her little sister said with a sigh, her cheeks reddening just a touch as the inebriation began to take over. Kagami sat up and considered it for a moment.

"… What the hell." She opened it and took a sip, and the intensely bitter taste, mixed with the metallic flavoring, forced her to wrinkle her face in disgust as she drained half of it in one go.

"You must really not want to go to that party." Tsukasa noted with some amusement while opening a second one.

"You have no idea…" Kagami rubbed her temples after finishing the can off, and her body began to slowly relax, while her cheeks reddened and her face heated up. She gave a tiny smile. "But hey, can you imagine if I show up and actually win? I mean, it's just Guitar Hero and it's not like, I dunno, Sudoku. The look on Shinji's face!" She began to giggle softly, and Tsukasa joined in. Miyuki smiled, happy to see Kagami calmed down. "He'd probably wet himself from anger. I _really _hope he wets himself with anger. That'd be hilarious!"

Tsukasa began to giggle more now that the third can was empty, and a forth was passed to Miyuki. Miyuki eyed it for a few moments, before shrugging and taking a sip. "Oh! This is really hard to swallow…" Kagami found something about that sentence absolutely hilarious, and after Miyuki held down her full can, she began to join in with the giggling.

The three girls laid around for a few hours, not doing much more than relaxing, except for Tsukasa who had tossed her third can away and was humming lazily as she walked from her room to the bathroom to tie her assorted bows in her hair. Kagami and Miyuki's buzz had simmered down, letting them calm and enjoy the ceiling.

"Hey." Miyuki turned to face Kagami, who was still staring at the ceiling. "You… You're good at interpreting dreams, right?"

Miyuki wasn't sure how to respond. She liked interpreting them sure, but was she any good? She was no psychiatrist and she doubted she was a true prodigy, but she never made below an A in her class. "I think I am. Was there another dream?"

Kagami gulped. She dreaded even thinking about her dream. She wasn't sure she could describe it accurately enough to help Miyuki understand her plight. So many things were blurry and uninteresting when she thought back on it. The three things she remembered were the road, the castle, and the girl. Should she tell her about the girl? It was what was bothering her, but Miyuki, despite being an absolute sweetheart, didn't need to know everything about it.

She rubbed her eyes. It couldn't have been that big of a deal, it was only a dream. Dreams were random flits of… Firing neurons or something in your head when you slept. Her imagination was just overreacting. And it was just a girl. Somebody she didn't know, and never met. "Okay… See… I had this dream where there was a road…"

"A symbol of a journey…" Miyuki recounted lazily, staring at the blank ceiling.

"It was white, featureless. It just went one direction in this huge, dark place…"

"White and featureless… A holy path? Destiny?" Pinky rubbed her eyes.

"And it lead to a white castle."

"Nobility and wealth. Symbol of renown…"

"It was a _huge _castle. Absolutely beautiful too. It glowed so brightly and just drew me in… Whenever I walked towards it it'd slowly get bigger, and it was so big and grand, and the road was so long…"

"Long destiny, big wealth…"

"And then…" Kagami paused. Miyuki turned her head to Kagami again, her eyes wide and curious. Kagami pressed her hands against her forehead, and groaned. "Nevermind Miyuki, it's stupid." It _was _stupid. It was a dumb dream that meant nothing. Now that she heard it from herself, she realized how ridiculous it all was. She was putting too much thought into it.

"Kagami…" Kagami pulled her hands from her forehead and looked to Miyuki, who still looked very curious. "You can tell me anything, I'm your friend." Kagami was thinking again, thinking about Miyuki, the dream, what it meant, if it meant anything, if the answer was worth knowing…

No, she decided. It was nothing. "It's nothing Miyuki, it's just a dumb dream. It wasn't even that embarrassing…" Kagami stood up and stretched, the alcohol running out quickly as she went into her bedroom.

"Kagami?" She heard after several minutes. She was changing out of her work clothes and pulling on something casual. She considered her band uniform, but thought that would be too much. Kagami made a grunting noise of recognition as she pulled on a sleeveless purple sweater. "Do you have time this weekend?"

Kagami considered her schedule carefully in her mind while tugging on a black jacket and straightening the edges of it. "Nah, I have to study the textbooks to know what to expect in class this year. I heard it's gonna be rough this year."

"A-ah." Miyuki responded. Kagami felt bad, sure, but she'd have time for Miyuki later. She had a future to get ready for right now. The tight white jeans held her hips well, and didn't even squeeze that hard as she moved around. Good. It had been a while since she'd been to an actual party, so finding her old dress clothes fit was a relief. Shinji would give her hell if she showed up in slacks and a T-shirt. "Next week then?" She heard, and she thought about it again.

"If I have the time, Yuki." She finally responded, tying her black corduroys. She checked herself in the mirror. Not bad looking. It may even pass Shinji's inspection. Maybe. She didn't have _that _much hope.

"Of course, Kagami…" Miyuki sighed in the next room and turned over to face the wall.

* * *

><p>Kagami had to grudgingly admit that the party wasn't too bad. When the bus had dropped her off in the neighborhood, she could see there were plenty of cars up and down the street, but since most people here simply didn't drive, that meant there were more than triple the number of party-goers than there were actual cars. The two story house Shinji and Yui co-owned wasn't huge, but as Shinji would have put it, it was the perfect party size.<p>

'See, you want to have enough space to sorta fit everyone.' Shinji had explained to them while investigating every nook and cranny while Yui followed with nearly closed eyes. 'But you don't want so much space you don't have an excuse to kick some people stinkin' up the party while telling them: "Sorry, but we don't have enough space right now, I need you guys to leave." See? It's perfect.'

Shinji was an asshole, but he was a socially intelligent asshole, which meant he could be an even bigger asshole than he already was. Something Kagami found terribly disgusting about him. She opened the front door to the building, and the low thrumming of the base began to make her bones tremble as she entered. There were plenty of people here, she could count at least sixty in the bottom floor connected rooms alone, but there was more room upstairs and no doubt more people trying to find a bit of privacy.

She shut the door, the noise of a houseful of people trying to get themselves heard nearly pushing her out, but some unknown, compelling force was driving her to do this. She sighed heavily. She was not a party girl. She could dress the part but she was not a party girl. Tsukasa was better suited to parties, and only low-key, relaxing ones at that. She secretly wished she'd brought her little sister with her, then this might just be survivable.

"Well goddamn." She heard from behind her. She turned to find Shinji standing around in the corner with a few of his friends, who all looked good and smashed, besides Shinji himself. He reached into his pocket, and handed over what appeared to be twenty dollars to one very eager boy, who ran upstairs. "Well, you lost my twenty bucks, so you already suck tit tonight Kagami. Hope you don't do as badly with the guitar."

"You're a very rare sort of asshole, y'know that Shin?" Kagami grumbled as the boy broke away from his little group to confront her face-to-face.

"Perhaps, but here's the thing. You still remember your little shindig, right?" He began to circle her, slowly. "At least you tried to dress for it…" He grumbled, deep disappointment evident in his voice. Kagami rolled her eyes hugely when he came to face her.

"Yes I remember the deal, forget the reason I came though." Shinji just shrugged, grinning a huge grin before returning to his little crew and leaving Kagami to herself. Kagami, to her own credit, did not immediately leave the moment he took his eye off of her or attempt to drive the nearby candlestick-holder into the soft back of his neck, thereby destroying his spine and letting her escape without having to hear his whining about it later. Say what you wanted about Kagami, but she had restraint.

At least an hour passed since Kagami arrived, and she simply orbited around the first floor rooms of the house. She recognized most of the people here from high school, none of whom she was too friendly with due to her own social isolation, and she was guessing the others were from Shinji's college and his and Yui's jobs. It was fairly active in the house, as every time she changed to a room she'd already been in, people had shifted positions entirely. It was a little like navigating a maze that switched walls around every time you looked away. She settled by the refreshments table as the night waned, and sipped some lemonade set up for non-alcoholics.

"Hey! Hiiragi, didn't expect you to show up." Kagami found herself standing next to Tamara Chen. Kagami couldn't help but smile at her. "Shinji sink his little vampire teeth into you and drag you here?"

"Close enough. I just couldn't give him a good reason to _not _show up."

"Other than that he's a twisted vampire looking to drain all the life out of everything that exists?"

"What is it with you and vampires tonight?" Kagami finally pointed out. Tamara snorted.

"Fuck if I know, maybe 'cause it's the werewolf I'm dating."

"A werewolf?" Kagami's eyes lit up some. "Why would your date remind you of vampires? Is she nice?"

"He, and nice enough, if a little spineless when not all wolfed out. Bitches like an old friend of mine used to though too, I'm glad she moved past that stage in life." Tamara drank a mouthful of something alcoholic and sighed. "So, you're the 'suck-ass guitar bitch' everyone's going to be playing against tonight?"

"… In harsher words, but yes. Apparently I get to play for Kublai Khan's super whiskey or something."

"_Genghis Khan you inattentive whore!"_

"I wish he didn't have super hearing." Kagami sighed again, finished her lemonade, and tossed the cup. "Anyways, I should probably get to the TV to play. It's nearly nine."

"Right; I'll be cheering for you Kagami." Tamara winked, squeezing Kagami's rump as the lilacette walked away, causing her to hop nearly half the length of the room to evade the squeeze.

After pushing the crowd apart to get to the TV, Kagami picked up one of the plastic guitar controllers and tested it curiously. She had never played Guitar Hero, but had been playing guitar for at least four years. Compared to the real thing, the controller was so… Simple. She knew the premise of playing, so she testingly ran her hand up and down the neck, hitting the various buttons, memorizing their placement and color, all while plucking at the switch. It wasn't bad, she might even do alright tonight.

The lights flickered rapidly, and everyone turned towards the light switch in a small amount of panic that caused more than one self-defense system to go haywire. Shinji watched with true, serene joy until the panic finally settled and everyone got ahold of themselves. "Alright everyone, now it's time for tonight's challenging event. Those of you who entered the competition, there's a simple method of doing this: each person goes one on one against the, eheh, 'grand mistress' and her guitar playing skills, and the first person to win becomes the new master of the challenge, and they play until they are knocked out and are replaced. The last person standing gets the prize. Now, first person to play is… Eric." He held up the slip of paper with Eric's name on it above the punch bowl serving as a raffle drawing, and the boy, a young guy, probably only seventeen or eighteen, walked forward, whipping off his sunglasses and giving a shout of determination as he stood next to the significantly smaller and much more focused Kagami.

Kagami couldn't ever hear the boy's trash talk over the shouts of the song's suggestion, and eventually Cherry Pie was deemed the winner by Shinji. The party host sat in a chair just behind the two competitors and nodded as the difficulty setting came up. "Eric, as the challenger, what's your choice?" He asked, and Eric smirked, choosing hard. Kagami picked the same, and the crowd went silent as the song began to start and the nodes began to roll.

Eric's fingers flew up and down the neck of his guitar, his thumb smacking at the switch with intense precision, his eyes glued to the screen as he played. He activated his star power and flew through the notes with a promising grin. He was doing well this night. Any other night he might have missed more notes and stumbled, but he wasn't as inebriated as he usually was when he had this level of confidence, and he knew, just knew…

"Eric has a score of 95%." Shinji announced, the entire room completely quiet. Kagami stared boredly at the screen, Eric's mouth agape in shock. "Kagami has 100%. Anybody who's not doing Very Hard mode, get the hell out!" Shinji announce in an irritated voice. More than half the gathered crowd stepped back, leaving only the Guitar Hero "experts".

"Shinji." Kagami turned her head to the boy, who grumbled acknowledgement. "How do you activate 'star power'?" The gathered competing crowd halved once again once Shinji finished his rant and finally showed her what she needed to do.

It was surprisingly easy. Okay, so it was nothing like playing real guitar, where you played the notes any time you wished, but it was all about timing and hand-eye coordination, something she had loads of. There were still some ten people she had to beat in this dumb game, and when the next song loaded up and Tamara took her epic guitar playing stance, Kagami found Very Hard… Harder, she supposed, but a bit easier since she was more used to fast-paced songs. "You have seriously never played this before?" Tamara grumbled as she set the plastic guitar down. She scored an 86%. Kagami had 94%.

"Nope. First timer." Kagami's smile was more than a little cocky. At least her guitar skills were coming in use now. She finally had the chance to rub her superiority in Shinji's cocky little face. Her mouth split into a blissful smile at that thought, completely unnerving the next guy, who had just chosen Rain of Blood on Very Hard mode. He did not do well. Nor did the next guy. Or the next guy. Or the next girl. Or any of them.

Kagami was almost getting bored of this. It just kept going though, people kept coming up to compete. It eventually went from picking hard songs to outhard Kagami, to picking familiar songs, to just picking crowd requests.

"Alright, so, whatever, we got like one contestant and then it's time to give the prize to the… Winner…" Shinji said almost tiredly. Kagami gave him such a smug little grin that she swore his eyes began to turn red with rage. It was like a dream come true, watching his eyes shift from that moment of annoyance to simple rage. She would have danced, except she hadn't yet lost her self-consciousness. "Last person get the fuck up here…" Shinji growled to the crowd.

Happy it was almost over with, Kagami turned to the screen, ready to play the final song, until a small flicker of blue caught her eye. In most circumstances, she'd have never looked. It was just a bit of blue, probably just a stray plastic cup flitting in the corner of her eye, but after last night, everything blue seemed to hold significance. She turned her head.

"Go easy on me, 'kay?" Wearing a tank-top and shorts, both made for kids, the small girl with long blue hair, deep green eyes, and adorable beauty mark picked up the guitar and turned to her. "Please?" She grinned, and then her eyes widened in recognition. The small girl snapped back to the screen, no longer smiling, looking surprised.

"Um, yeah, sure, easy…" Kagami whispered in a shaky voice. She could have sworn the girl shivered some. Did she recognize her?… No, that wasn't right. It was just a dream. It was just a dream. This stuff didn't happen in dreams. Then it occurred to her she had just spoke with somebody who was dating a werewolf.

She became aware of the crowd cheering, wanting them to start the match, and she did so only hesitantly, tossing the girl one final look. She noticed the girl was doing the same. They quickly jerked their heads back to the screen, and the game started. She didn't even know what song was playing or how well she was doing. She was only vaguely aware of the nodes. The girl next to her… She kept glancing to her curiously, and once or twice or thirty times she noticed the blue-haired little thing doing the same to her.

Why was she so beautiful? How could she be? She was so short, she was absolutely tiny compared to most people, she looked like a child yet she seemed to be an adult - she knew Shinji had his limits - yet in Kagami's eyes she'd never met anyone who looked so beautiful. She was disturbed by this revelation, that she was so attracted to the girl's height as well as her looks. She hardly even noticed that the game had ended. She noticed the scored. She had made a 42%. The other girl had made a 24%. Was it a testament to her skills or was the other girl's attention even worse than hers was during the game? The more she thought about it, the more it disturbed her. It seemed like the other girl recognized her.

The entire crowd was completely quiet as Shinji stood, seeming to be shaking with absolute rage as he held up the bottle he'd been promising. The blue-haired girl disappeared into the crowd before Kagami could move, and as she tried to chase after her Shinji had taken her arm. "Kagami, for your own sake, take the booze and _never let me see it again or I will castrate you with a branding iron._" He hissed ominously, then slunk back into the crowd to mope. Kagami wisely chose this time to slip out of the spotlight.

The lemonade barely had any flavor. The alcohol was tasteless. Even the pizza couldn't distract her from her own thoughts. She was staring wide-eyed at the wall on the other side of the food table and tried to collect and rationalize her thoughts. It couldn't have been a hallucination no matter how much it seemed to be. She'd never even noticed her before the competition, was she really that short? You'd think with that hair she'd be like a neon sign pointing out where all the Porn and Booze was.

Tamara then had the misfortune to be the first person to congratulate her. "Hey, Kagami, can I try so-"

"_Tamara!" _Kagami screamed, making the Chinese girl nearly jump out of her shoes, except Kagami had her held in an iron grip by the shoulders. "That last girl on the stage, who was she!" Kagami demanded. Tamara's knees began to knock.

"I- Christ Kagami calm down! Stop shaking me! She's right behind you now put me down please!" Tamara shouted, and Kagami dropped her immediately. She whirled around, giving Tamara the chance to run like hell.

The poor little blue-haired girl suddenly found herself staring into the eyes of a ravenous beast. "Uh… You did… Good?" The girl squeaked. Kagami's boiling staring calmed down, and she straightened up, and took a deep breath. "Eh, yeah! That's right, deep breathing, think calming thoughts! Peaceful mountain prairie! Underwater cactus garden!" The girl suggested with a nervous smile.

Kagami did calm down, and stared at the girl, taking her all in. So she was real… She hoped. Maybe she was standing here talking to an imaginary friend. Maybe. "So…" Kagami began, looking unsure. The other girl looked equally unsure, and the two shifted around in place, glancing around at the ceiling, the walls, an interesting shape on the floor. "Those… Uh… Those last two places don't make sense."

"Oh." The shorter girl looked to the left and crossed her arms, and Kagami felt bad to have corrected her. "Maybe it's better that way though." Kagami cocked her head in a curious manner. Something the shorter girl found amazingly cute. "Well I mean think about it, what's more relaxing? Real stuff or fake stuff? You can't go to Asgard without your imagination after all!"

Kagami considered this. That was true, she supposed. "Well, I guess, but… Underwater cactus garden?"

"… Cacti are cool!" The shorter girl said with a little smile. Kagami paused, then gave a short little laugh. "See? They're funny too!" Kagami kept laughing for a few moments, then sighed a little.

"Say, what's your name?" Kagami asked the shorter girl, who, to her confusion, turned around and walked away. Her face began to fall as her mind blazed with possibilities of what she did wrong, until the girl came back, holding a chair. She set it down in front of Kagami and climbed onto it, making herself taller.

"My name is the grand…" She turned and tossed her hand out, throwing the V fingers and smiling courageously. "Illustrious…!" She cocked a knee, and Kagami was briefly star-struck when one of the speakers on the wall blew out, throwing a shower of sparks behind Konata and briefly igniting an aggravated werewolf. "KONATA IZUMI!" The blown out wall speaker reached the climax of a song at max volume, making Kagami's eyes widen and she stared dumbly as a timely opened window tossed that wall of blue hair behind her.

"Who the _fuck _poured beer on the wall-speaker!" Shinji screamed in rage, completely ignoring the awesome sight presented in front of him by Konata.

"And you're Kagami Hiiragi, right?" Konata asked, the window closing, the wall speaker falling to the floor with a crash, and her pose falling into a relaxed stand.

"… Uh~huh…" Kagami was staring at her gloriously. Konata began to giggle softly. "You really _are _a girl from my dreams…" Konata paused, her smile falling as she stared at Kagami. Kagami noticed, and her face went from star-struck to concerned.

"What do you mean?" Konata asked, suddenly a tad bit defensive.

"Uh? Oh, no, I mean… I had a dream last night and… I guess it was just a… Like it wasn't you I guess, though I guess it was, but.. Y'know, maybe we shouldn't talk about this?" Kagami finally offered, her smile shaking from her anxiety.

"Yeah… Let's…" Konata paused, looking very unsure, hopped off the chair. "Let's not." The two stood there uncomfortably, and Kagami finally took a step back.

"So… Uh… I'm gonna not say anything else and just go home, okay?" She offered, trying to smile despite the despair and anger eating at her.

"Yeah, uh, okay, take care and stuff. Be nice… Or good. Or… Bye…" Konata fled. Kagami fled the other direction. Kagami had no idea where she was going, but Khan Whiskey in hand she pushed apart an entire crowd with her bullrush and flung herself through a closed window. She didn't hear Shinji shout after her, didn't notice she didn't take a lick of damage from the broken glass, and didn't notice she'd somehow run twenty-five miles to her apartment.

* * *

><p>The door shut a bit more loudly than she'd intended it to, but any surprise Tsukasa or Miyuki had disappeared when they saw who it was. "Sis!" Tsukasa squeaked, getting up to hug her. Kagami hugged her back and smelled her breath. Surprisingly her sister was sober. "How was the party? And what did you win?" Tsukasa smiled at her sister, not what was in her hand. Kagami appreciated that.<p>

"Whiskey." She held up the old looking bottle. "Very old whiskey. Has history or something." Kagami sighed softly. Her heart was still racing from the mixed emotions stemming from the night. It hurt to think about what she'd done and how badly she'd failed. Her palms itched a little, so when Tsukasa took the bottle from her she curled them into fists.

"Oh, that's quite a prize. Would you like to open it and try some?" The younger twin asked, heading straight for the kitchen. She didn't wait for an answer to pop it open.

Kagami shook her head. "No, no thank you… I don't think it'd be good if I drank tonight." Tsukasa nodded in understanding as she took out a glass.

"Mm, true, especially if your nightmares are so bad…" Tsukasa hummed, filling the glass about halfway.

"Tsukasa, would you pour me half a glass? I'd very much like to try it." Tsukasa did so as Miyuki turned to Kagami. "Are you sure you're alright? You look stressed." Miyuki took Kagami's hand and squeezed ever so lightly, making Kagami wince in guilt as she lied.

"I'm fine, it's just, y'know Shinji and all… Gave me a bunch of crap for winning. And I sort of broke a window but I'm fine." She tried to smile, she really did, but her thoughts went back to why she'd broken that window. She was so furious with herself and wanted to get so far away from the party she just threw herself through it and ran. What else was she going to do, find a backdoor?

"… Broke a window?" The other two girls stared at her with clear disbelief and confusion. Kagami was the calm and rational one. Well maybe not calm, but controlled. 'Kagami' and 'break' when not associated with 'records' was a strange sentence. Miyuki took her drink and considered Kagami for a while, while Kagami's self-confidence began to degrade even further until the pinkette and her little sister finally drank from the cups. Their eyes lit up. "Oh! Oh… Oh dear…" Miyuki blinked rapidly down at her cup, one hand rising to a reddening cheek. She took another sip, and then began to drain it. Tsukasa's was already empty.

"This is… Good!" Tsukasa finally concluded, smiling at Miyuki, who smiled back. Kagami let out a deep breath of relief. She'd dodged some touchy questions this time around, and moved past the other girls to take a seat in her beanbag chair. She sunk in with a small sigh. It felt good to sit and relax, and let her brain take all the energy as she tried to think through tonight. It was painful to remember, but the more she considered her options… It may have been for the best. Talking with Konata - Konata! Such a lovely name… - had gotten her hopes up. Had put ideas in her head. Feelings in her body. She never had a chance with the girl, she knew that. Somebody as pretty as that was probably already taken…

She was rather abruptly brought back to reality when Tsukasa decided to take a seat on her lap, and wrap an arm around her neck. "You look glum sis!" Tsukasa kissed her cheek, and it took Kagami a moment to realize she'd been crying a little. "It takes less muscles to smile than frown!" The girl announced bubbly, kissing her sister again.

Kagami hid a sniffle, and gave an awkward smile. "I told you that, didn't I?" She wanted to change the subject from her own sadness.

"Mmm, yeah…" Tsukasa rested her head on her sister's shoulder, and Kagami sighed. She held her twin closely, feeling like a mother sometimes more than a sister, but she didn't mind too much. Tsukasa was cute when she was being cuddly. "'Cause I'd failed a test I'd been studying for… And you came and comforted me…"

"Mhmm, and I told you I'd help you study for it so you could retake it, remember?" Kagami smiled a little more.

"M'yeah! And then you started to help me study and as it grew hot you started to slowly pull off my jacket…" Tsukasa recounted with a tiny, affectionate coo as she ran her finger in a slow circle around Kagami's collarbone. Kagami began to heat up as Tsukasa rested her head closer to her neck. "And you slid my hand down my shirt and began to-"

"Tsu_kasa!_ What the hell are you talking about!" Kagami gasped, nearly pushing her sister off, though Tsukasa hung on fast.

"Remember when we studied and you undressed me and started to press your fingers like this?" Kagami screamed and threw Tsukasa off, an enormous blush on her face as Tsukasa picked herself up off the ground. "Or maybe that was what I was watching earlier…"

"You stopped telling the story…" Miyuki whispered, one hand clearly up her shirt, fondling herself while she radiated lust.

"Oh my god, you two are just- Miyuki! What are you doing!" Kagami finally noticed the pinkette sitting across from them. Tsukasa sat up, chewing her thumb.

"It was a nice story…" Miyuki stopped and pulled her hand out, blushing heavily while grinning stupidly. "That was some really good Whiskey…" She began to crawl over to Kagami, and gently took her hand. Kagami's face turned so red as her hand was filled with… Soft… She wasn't able to react immediately. "Would you like to watch Tsukasa's little movie with me Kagami? I brought my laptop so we can watch it in bed…"

Kagami hopped up and locked her bedroom door behind her. She would need it tonight. She would also have to get rid of that whiskey very very soon.

* * *

><p>She sighed quietly to herself. Maybe it was the past few days. Maybe everything was ruined. Maybe she wanted company tonight, she didn't know, but staring at the brilliantly glowing castle millions of miles away yet millions of miles high, she wasn't interested in what was inside. But staring at the dark blackness all around her revealed nothing. Looking behind her, she only saw her road turn into a longer, thinner strand that disappeared into the dark distance. It took her a while to realize how amazingly depressing the whole place was.<p>

She looked back to the castle, and noticed with some surprise there was something added to it. A rather interesting statue. She began to walk, slowly, picking up the pace with time as she tried to get a better look at the statue. The dream started again, no thoughts about what was around her or behind her, just wanting to see the castle, what was in the castle, what the statue was of, how she could get there faster and so on and so on, but as she walked she felt something was off.

The road was still bright and did not flicker, the castle was still the same size, but it took her a moment to realize she could hear an odd sound coming from behind her. She continued to walk, trying to think of what it was, until it occurred to her to simply turn around and look. Her breath caught.

They couldn't have been more than five feet apart. She stood awkwardly, staring for a long time into a pair of dark goggles. Roughly a head shorter than her, with dreamily long blue hair, and a small beauty mark, Kagami was watching Konata with a shocked expression. Konata stared back, blank - she could tell even with the goggles - before realization dawned on her. "Can you see me?" The girl asked curiously, raising a hand and adjusting the bag on her shoulder.

"P-…" Kagami sucked in a breath, thinking about ocean cactus farms, then nodded. "Perfectly, Konata…" Konata froze up, and slowly rolled past her on her inline skates, then around her, going in slow circles. Kagami turned in circles to watch her, eventually stopping before she got motion sick. Konata slowed to a roll directly in front of her, lifting up her goggles so they could stare each other in the eye. Kagami chewed her lip as she watched those gorgeous green eyes watch her own dark blue. "Konata?" She finally questioned after maybe a minute of this.

"Just making sure." Konata beckoned Kagami to follow her, and Kagami started to walk and Konata rolled to almost a crawl to make sure Kagami could keep up with her. "It's interesting that you can see me." She finally said, putting the goggles back over her eyes.

"Is it? You are in my dream." Kagami pointed out as she picked up the pace a little, allowing Konata a little comfort in some extra speed. "Why is it strange?"

"Um, well, only I can really explain. So…" Konata paused, rolling down - up? - the road idly and letting momentum carry her. "It's like… Sort of walking through dimensional gates as a shortcut. Yours is really convenient since it gets me across town in about thirty seconds rather than an hour, so I can finish my delivery route early."

"Delivery route?" Kagami watched the girl skate along curiously. She was almost carefree, in her movements. She was so calm and so pretty… Kagami had to catch her breath when she realized how close a proximity she was with her. "Wait, my dreams are a dimensional gate!" She finally realized. "And what do you mean by dimensional gate?"

"One at a time Flower, sheesh." Kagami could only wonder where 'Flower' came from. "Yeah, I work for Nikia's Home Delivery service, and I'm the only runner in the city. On my first night it took me a while just to get one corner of the city some so I started gating around. Your gate is the best because it gets me to Northside so quickly. I usually travel through dreams but most people don't notice me. Anyways, thanks to the gate hopping I can get everywhere I need to be in the city in just a night." She rolled forward a few feet in front of Kagami and began to skate from one side of the road to the other, mostly for her own entertainment.

Kagami walked behind her silently, finding it very easy to keep up with her. "So why did you freak out when I told you about it during the party?" Konata stopped going from side to side and turned, still rolling backwards.

"At first I thought you were just staring at me because you were attracted to me or something." Kagami nodded, not denying it and not realizing it. Konata paused, thinking this over. "But when you mentioned the dream thing I finally figured it out. You recognized me. The way you were watching me… I thought you'd been sent to get me." Konata shrugged.

Kagami stopped moving. Konata continued to slide away a few feet, before coming to a stop. "… Who would send me to get you? Why?" She asked, feeling a little fearful.

"It's nothing." Konata responded. Kagami didn't look convinced, so Konata raised her hands. "It really is nothing! I have this freaky ex-girlfriend who I left all of a sudden. Real controlling bitch. I wouldn't be surprised if she hired somebody to come get me."

Kagami wasn't sure what to say or think at this point. This girl was adorable, and endearing, and apparently liked girls, but… "This crazy ex-girlfriend… Was she a recent thing?" She asked, catching Konata off-guard with the odd question. Konata nodded.

"Just a month and a half ago I left her. I got a job here pretty quickly and I gotta say, it's a great distraction from it. I keep myself busy and just don't think about relationships. I've had a rough few relationships with crazy chicks the past few years…" Konata sighed deeply, lifting her goggles up again to look Kagami in the eye. "You aren't crazy, are you?"

"Uh?" Kagami froze up, and thought to herself quietly. "No, no, I mean, not since you started invading my dreams I've never thought I was crazy." Konata watched her with an unreadable stare for a long while.

"I drove you crazy?" She finally asked, her face not changing.

"Sort of. Until I found out you were real and just invade my dreams using gates, apparently…" It still didn't make sense, and she wasn't sure if she cared to know the answer. Just standing across from her… This felt so perfect. "I don't feel crazy anymore, just confused."

Konata reached behind her head and scratched it nervously. "But you aren't like obsessive or anything? A weird stalker?"

"What? No! That's just creepy!" Kagami looked offended at being accused of such things, and Konata began to stare harder. Then she smirked a little.

"Good." Konata turned to her right and skated off into the darkness, leaving Kagami behind in her dream. Kagami stared after her, her mouth open, her mind jumbled, her body numb… And she could only despair in confusion at what she did wrong this time.

* * *

><p>When Kagami had woken up, all she felt was… Nothing. It felt like something had just tugged out her happiness and relief and energy, and very groggily she got to her feet. She did not feel good. Her body felt fine but her heart… It hurt. Again the girl had evaded her, and perhaps… Perhaps she didn't have a chance with her after all. She was real alright, but that just meant she was within reach, but untouchable. She wished she was crazy, then maybe it wouldn't hurt so bad to think about Konata.<p>

"Flower." She said to herself when she opened her door and head to the bathroom. Miyuki had apparently gone home, as she only found Tsukasa using the bean bag chairs as a makeshift bed. Stupid girl. After showering and changing into fresh clothes, she cooked herself a quick breakfast and left a small portion for Tsukasa, as she'd always done. No doubt it'd go cold. She felt slightly resentful towards Tsukasa about that. She'd just let the meal go cold. It was thought that Tsukasa was the best cook of the house, but how could anyone tell if her breakfast wasn't warm? Furiously she scraped the scraps into the wastebasket, then approached the sleeping Tsukasa. She kicked the beanbag she was laying on, hard, jostling the girl on top, who woke up with a violent twitch. "Get up."

"Oh… Hey sis…" Tsukasa yawned and rubbed her eyes, sitting up slowly. "Are you-"

"I'm going to work. Tidy the place up." Kagami ordered, her voice devoid of affection. Tsukasa gave her a small look of… Was that fear? Guilt crept into her stomach, but she did her best to push it down. "You and Miyuki left a mess, I want it clean by the time I call you." Her voice was a little cold, and Tsukasa nodded slowly, sadly.

"… Are you mad sis?" She asked softly, sitting up and starting to clean. "Is there breakfast?"

"No. And I'm fine." Kagami left, shutting the door behind her hard.

She only really began to feel like shit halfway through the bus ride. Tsukasa didn't deserve that. She didn't deserve to be angry at. Kagami was just angry at herself for another stupid dream. She would apologize to Tsukasa during the phone call, bring her home dinner, tease her hair like she liked and watch something with her. She'd lose a night of studying, she realized, but she wanted Tsukasa to be happy again.

She heard a heavy thump from outside the bus, and lifted her head from the window when the bus slowed down. She and the other passengers looked to the embarrassed bus driver as he stood from his seat, looking embarrassed. "Well, uh, I hate to tell you this, but it looks like we have a flat…" Kagami tightened her fists.

She chose to walk the rest of the way, just wanting to move without thinking. It was still cold in the morning, and the chill wind bit into her cheeks and arms. She pulled up the hood of her coat, and nestled into her clothing, squeezing her eyes shut against the bitter wind. She deserved this for getting mad at Tsukasa. Then the rain began pour. This… Maybe she didn't deserve this.

Half an hour of walking through the rain and the cold, eyes shut and body numb, she came to the front of her building and opened it. She walked into the lobby and shed her wet coat, the warmer air inside putting some of the feeling inside of her and drying the wetness on her skin. She opened her eyes, and dried them on her sleeve.

"- and another signature here." She heard. She blinked, and glanced to the front desk. A shock of blue hair. She froze in place again, that coldness in her heart refilling as she watched the girl calmly get her signatures and trade the papers for the parcel in her huge carry bag. Then Konata turned and saw Kagami.

"Morning Kagami!" The front desk lady called. She smiled warmly, until she noticed the two having a staring match. She quietly crept away to deliver the package.

"… You work here." Konata concluded.

"You just left me in that dream…" Kagami pointed out, her voice a little harsh. Konata gulped quietly.

"I thought you'd want privacy…"

"Bullshit."

Konata had lost her cool, and was looking around carefully, noting the others in the room who were merely coming through to reach other parts of the building. "I had to go think."

"So you just left me?" Kagami asked, taking a step forward.

"I didn't have a choice! You were so confused in there I could barely think, I had to go and clear my head of your thoughts…" Konata tried to explain, trying to smile to bring some warmth between them.

"_You were reading my thoughts!"_ Kagami's voice raised, making Konata tremble a little.

"I didn't mean to! I can't help it, it's why I'm usually quick to get through a dream… Look, yes, I know what you think of me…" She started slowly, making Kagami grit her teeth angrily.

"And you still just left me by myself!" Kagami shouted, and Konata lowered her head. She was so angry she couldn't think straight. She'd mock her, read her thoughts, and leave her behind knowing all of this? This morning was pulling apart the last of her nerves and she wanted to snap.

"I didn't want to."

Kagami stared at the shorter girl with a steely glare, but softened just enough to keep her voice calm. "Explain."

"Like I said, I couldn't think in there, but every thought you had about me was… Nice and really warm. It made me happy to be around you, but I just had to ask you, the inner personality, not the outer thoughts. Everything you told me made me feel… Safe I suppose. Okay not safe…" She corrected herself, and calmly lifted up her goggles. "But I trust you in what you said. I don't think you're a creepy stalker and I think you're a nice girl."

Kagami bit her lips together. The shorter girl had the sheer audacity to smile but… She was oddly okay with that. She liked that smile. Her face untensed. "Not that that changes anything…" She whispered unhappily, standing up straight.

"Eh? Of course it does! I think you're super cool and nice and hot and stuff! Hell, I had this _really _awesome dream about you when I took a nap at home!" Konata started to make a hand sign, but Kagami raised a hand to stop her.

"No, stop, I don't want to hear it. Enough about dreams, let's talk reality." She walked forward, looming ever closer, making Konata take a step back as they came within reaching distance. "You aren't lying?"

"No, it _was super awesome!" _Kagami glared a little, and Konata just nodded. "I mean yes, you are cool, you are nice, and I do think you're pretty safe and sane. I left because, well, I just had to-"

"Think, yes." Kagami finished for her. Konata stared up at her, a low look on her face, and then Kagami sighed. She tensed herself up rather suddenly, and Konata tensed up herself, half expecting to be struck for her blabbering mouth and poor timing, until Kagami finally blurted it out: "Konata Izumi, would you please go on a date with me!"

Konata stood in utter shock, her mouth open just the slightest bit as she heard those words. Mixed feelings rose in her, desire, happiness, excitement… And some distrust. "I-… Kagami maybe…" She paused, chewed her finger, and thought about what had happened over the past few days, months, years… And calmly turned away from Kagami. "Kagami Hiiragi, I will go on a date with you." She finally said.

The tension in the room that had built up like drying cement slowly deflated until both of the girls were calm and relaxed, and Kagami's sigh of relief touched Konata. "O-okay. So… A date then."

Konata nodded. "A date. Yeah. You know what the Null Zone is?" A small smile was on her face.

"The Null Zone? The arcade in Westside?" Kagami blinked, and Konata nodded. She still felt heavy pressure in her chest, but it was of both love and confusion as well as uncertainness.

"Yeah. Let's meet there. Six o' clock on Sunday." The small blue-haired girl was actually smiling now.

"Six on Sunday… Sure…" Kagami nodded, the full impact of this hitting her like a lead break to the head. She felt dizzy. And happy. Dizzy happy. She wondered if that was an actual feeling.

"Six on Sunday." Konata turned to the desk and took some paper and a pen, wrote for a moment, then began to skate past the lilacette, slipping something into her pocket before gliding out the door. Kagami stared after her for a long while, before reaching into her pocket and taking the paper placed there. She looked at the phone number on it, and felt her heart begin to pump.

Then she smiled.


	3. Push and Pull at the Null

**Chapter 3: Push and Pull at the Null**

So maybe Mercury City was a tad strange. You woke up every morning expecting something odd to happen in the day, maybe you'd acknowledge that it happened, maybe you'd ignore it. In all of Tsukasa's relatively short life, nothing considered 'not-normal' had a profound effect on her or her life. You just grew used to strange things.

Maybe that was why only the normal-things-that-are-slightly-off-today things were the ones that really messed with her head. She tugged her apron on tighter, spinning slightly to make sure her skirt would lift when she did, but not enough to show off more than she intended, then faced the mirror again to tighten the maid's headdress didn't fly off or loosen. Tsukasa didn't really understand the fascination with French Chambermaids, maybe it was the whole idea of servitude. Maybe it was the French accent she had to use whenever she spoke to anyone outside the kitchen. Maybe France was just sexy…

At least it was a bit airy when she wasn't wearing underwear so the heat of the kitchen wouldn't make her overheat. And it really wasn't all that bad to get a few interested watchers, the ones who didn't drool and whistle obnoxiously. Even though she was the kitchen Sous Chef she was also the trainer for some of the newbies, meaning when she wasn't cooking she wandered the lobby with them and taught them how to clean properly and serve a customer, which was a lot less annoying than it sounded since The Pampered Skillet only hired girls to be its staff, meaning when she had to bend over, the people she could actually evict without consulting her nepotistic boss were the only ones who gave her trouble.

Peaking into the mirror one last time, she saw the apartment's front door fly open, and she stared at the reflection of her sister all but dancing in with the most blissful smile she'd ever seen since she'd first stealthily watched her tongue-kiss her first girlfriend. "Tsu~kasa! I'm home!" The elder twin announced, dropping her purse onto the coffee table as the younger turned to stare at what she assumed was an imposter. "You look fabulous today sis!" Tsukasa was overtaken by a hug that made her squirm and blush at the same time because she could feel her sister's heartbeat racing the heat coming off her slightly red skin. "Work soon?" Kagami kissed her sister's cheek, making Tsukasa squirm again.

This didn't seem right. She'd been woken up by Kagami who was so cold she'd nearly cried as she cleaned up. Kagami hadn't even taken a second look around the apartment to see if she'd done it, and here she was hugging her more earnestly than she'd ever had before.

"Uh~huh." Tsukasa paused, batting her eyes rapidly at her sister's goofy smile. "Yeah. Kagami, are you alright?" She peaked into her sister's eyes. There was no fever, no obvious drug use, and her breath didn't smell like alcohol, so as far as she could tell, her sister was just really really happy. Or brain-damaged.

"I'm great! Why do you ask?" Kagami didn't seem to want to let her little sister go, and traveled to her side so they could walk to the door together. Tsukasa shrugged, wondering if her sister knew she was acting so odd. "Listen, I won't hold you up much longer 'cause I'm going out myself, I have a busy night tonight." Kagami didn't say why, she was already picking up her purse again.

"Why sis? Are you going somewhere?" Tsukasa could only guess where, and if she had to assume it'd be something she didn't understand like a Pre-College Math Course that taught… Super math or something. That would get Kagami excited by itself since she was always looking for a chance to forge ahead of her regular classes, but Kagami seemed almost glowing tonight. Kagami never glowed unless you poked her with a tazer. The answer was surprising.

"Just to get some new clothes, get my hair fixed a little, maybe get a manicure… I hear pedicures are nice too…" Kagami finally let her sister go to stare into the mirror, narrowly missing the look of pure, utter disbelief on her sweet face. "What?" She finally asked the younger twin, until Tsukasa finally sputtered out a response.

"Wh-what brought _this _on!" She finally asked, staring into Kagami's eyes, searching for any hint of mischief, like this was a prank.

"What? The make-over stuff?" Tsukasa bobbed her head rapidly, one eyebrow so far up her forehead Kagami was under the impression it was about to pop itself off. She wanted to tell Tsukasa all about Konata. She wanted to just let it out that, after several years of loneliness, social isolation, and self-fulfillment she finally had a girl she was about to call her own. She wanted to go to the top of West Tower and sing her joy to the rest of the city, but it caught in her throat. Dare she tell Tsukasa? If it didn't work out… No, she didn't want to imagine that it would fail after all this emotional crap. But right now she didn't want to tell Tsukasa until she was sure of herself that this wasn't some messed up imaginary filler and that she knew exactly what she was getting into. "I-" She collected herself with a deep breath, "-wanted to make a little change to my life. I thought treating myself would be a good start." She nodded in agreement with herself.

Kagami was a very bad liar because of how defensive she was whenever she was trying to cover up for something, and normally she'd have a very good reason to cover something up ("No mom, it broke when I went horseback riding! I don't know, ask Selina! It wasn't either one, it was the horse! _Not like that!_"). Luckily for Kagami, Tsukasa trusted her sister more than anyone else. "Well alright Kagami, but if I may suggest a few places?" Tsukasa noted that Kagami was actually attentive as she told her, listening carefully and asking directions. Her sister was making an effort to make herself look better for once.

Sure Kagami always looked good, but her hair wasn't in the best shape from sleepless nights of studying, her skin was pale, her nails were cut and trimmed but rough and a little dirty, and she had chronic acne cases along her forehead. Maybe somebody pushed her too far in poking fun of her looks, though if that was the case she would have come home moping and sorrowful, doing this only out of necessity to make the teasing stop. "Thanks Tsukasa, you're the greatest sister ever." The youngest lilacette blushed as Kagami kissed her cheek again and grabbed her purse and wallet, then waved goodbye. "I don't know when I'll be back home, but if you bring back dinner before I come back just leave it in the fridge!" Tsukasa nodded slowly as she watched her sister walk out.

She felt a little dizzy as she stood in the middle of the now empty, clean room. She calmly picked up her own purse and kept staring at the door, as if expecting the real Kagami to burst in and demand to know if she'd seen her clone. It did not come. It only made her a little bit more scared.

* * *

><p>Kagami wasn't seen again until around twelve that night, when she returned home still all but glowing. Tsukasa didn't get to see much of her because of how tired she'd been, and how early Kagami set out to work before she did. All day she wondered what her sister looked like now, if the lie wasn't actually a lie that is. She didn't even touch a can or a bottle that entire day, she wanted to be completely in control when she confronted her sister today. She would be heavily disappointed when the phone rang.<p>

"Hiiragi Residence." Tsukasa answered casually while watching her movie. Kagami all but trained her to say that since their phone number was one number off from the local hospital's skin doctor, leading to some very awkward and unwarranted descriptions of local areas that made Tsukasa _very _careful in selecting her skin-care products.

"It's Kagami." Tsukasa let out a small sigh of relief. No nightmares for her tonight. "Listen, I'm going to be running a bit late so since I'll be out tonight I'm not going to come home until late." Tsukasa was silent for a moment. Kagami checked to see if she'd hit the cancel button by mistake but found the call was still going. "Tsukasa?"

"Don't you usually use your weekend nights to study?" Tsukasa finally asked with more than a little accusation in her voice.

"Uh, well, yeah, I guess I do…"

"Especially since classes are right around the corner and you just got your books." Tsukasa added. This time it was Kagami's turn to be quiet. Tsukasa let her stew on that, hoping for an answer, then sighed. "Kagami, you're keeping secrets from me and I don't like it. What's going on?"

There was only soft sighs and small grunts of annoyance on the other end, until Kagami finally spoke up. "It's not bad, Tsukasa, I can promise you that."

"And everything else?"

"… I can tell you when I get home tonight. Look, it's really important that I go out tonight. You don't have to worry, I will be home and I will tell you what's going on. Don't worry, okay?"

"Don't tell me to not worry, you're being weird and quiet and not telling my anything! As your sister, ever worse your _twin _I think I have a right to worry about my sister not acting like herself. What's keeping you from coming home and studying tonight?"

More silence. She could tell she had Kagami there, because there weren't annoyed sighs or anything. Kagami's guilt was punishing her for not being truthful with her little sister, and though Tsukasa hated to play with her guilt, she was actually very curious about what was going on. "It's, um…" Tsukasa strained to hear clearly. "I'll tell you when I get home." The phone clicked off.

Tsukasa stared at the wall with the buzzing phone in hand with solid shock, before a gut feeling of betrayal slid down into her tummy.

* * *

><p>Kagami really hated to lie to her sister. She was her confidant, her best friend, hell, she was even her sister, so she really hated to lie to her. Right now though she had more to worry about than her sister, no matter how important the short-haired girl was to her, she needed to focus on the important now.<p>

Last night had been a train of embarrassment and information she barely understood as a person more concerned with school studies than her looks, so discovering which scent worked best with her natural smell, which conditioner made her purple hair shine more, and the exact thickness of the blade a nail-cutter should have to cut, but not ruin, her nails was like walking into first grade all over again and learning to count. It was confusing, and she had a lot of questions she felt too embarrassed to ask because as a girl she felt she should have known all this. Yet, at the end of the day when she stared at herself in a mirror and eyed the twin tails in her hair that had never looked so poofy and clean before, looked into her scrubbed face to see that cleanness of her pale skin, and stared at her perfectly kept and cleaned nails, a sense of pride filled her. Looks hadn't always meant much to her, healthiness had but not so much looks, but going through that process gave her a new outlook on it: it felt good to turn even just a few heads.

That would explain the tiny, self-satisfied smile she had on as she walked away from the bus station towards the arcade she'd be meeting Konata at. The tight jeans made her feel stiff, and the low-cut top made her feel exposed, though the open jacket she had on helped her from feeling too naked. Yet despite her discomfort, she felt excellent.

The Null Zone was one of the only authentic arcades left in Mercury, and it prided itself in that so much that it made itself a place to stay for even non game lovers. Kagami wasn't interested in the games themselves, just the girl she'd be meeting there as well as the food. The restaurant in the front of the arcade managed to pull off a fancy look with faux-metal chandeliers and candles, but casual since it was mostly teens and kids there, so the food was stuff like hamburgers and macaroni and cheese. It helped the food was actually really good itself so it was an easy answer to a question of "what do you want tonight?"

She was fifteen minutes early to the Arcade, as she normally was. The exact right time from being too early and arriving early too late. It sucked arriving early only to find everyone else had the same idea, and you were still the last one there, because even if you were before the designated time they all still felt like they were waiting on you. Which is _bullshit._

Anywho, she waved to the waiter at the desk and signaled she'd be waiting for somebody, and calmly turned to sit on the bench without looking. Her rump found something absurdly soft, and the waiter snorted in embarrassment for the young girl. "Yo, Kagami, I know we're dating but this seems a little fast." Kagami shot up, screaming various incoherent words that didn't mean one thing or another but ultimately got the point across. "You should really look before you sit, that big butt of yours nearly suffocated me." Konata's smile was obscenely mischievous.

Kagami reached behind herself, her hands planted on her backside to feel. "I-! It's not big! It's comfortably sized! A clothes' maker told me so!" She defended herself, still feeling out back to see if there was anything extra she could have possibly missed all her life.

"Ah, but those guys are biased, y'know? They compliment you and tell you what you want to hear so you'll be tempted to get comfortable with your size and think 'oh they said I was small!' so you have that extra chicken wing, and when you return your butt's just a bit bigger, but they keep telling you it's small so you keep letting it get bigger and bigger so they can use more and more cloth to charge you more and more money, using the excuse of a staggered economy as reasons to raise the prices just enough to fill their greedy wallets a little more and a little more." Konata explained matter-of-factly, her eyes closed and her finger raised like she was lecturing a child.

"Uh… Buh…? Huh!" Kagami shook her head rapidly, staring down at the short girl with disbelief, while Konata sat comfortably confident with her deduction.

"Is that true?" The a nearby woman asked, suddenly all the more aware of her butt.

"Are you off your rocker? Nobody's that stupidly greedy to try and get you to gain more weight!" Kagami finally sputtered out, her eyes slanted in a little glare that gave Konata very mischievous little ideas. Oh she would absolutely love this one.

"Don't you know? It's a dog-eat-dog world out there, everybody fighting tooth and nail for a bigger share of the cheese and will do anything to get ahead! They fill potato chip bags with more air than chip to sell it at the designated weight to get the most of their money for the least of their products, they fill the pop-tart with less filling and pad with more bread for the same reason. Haven't you ever noticed how tasteless pop-tarts are these days?" Konata smiled with such self-assurance it made Kagami's skin crawl.

"But Martin's been telling me that for years Linda, and my dresses keep getting more and more expensive!" The woman said through the phone with a vaguely panicked look.

"N-no!" Kagami shook her head and grunted. "I don't eat pop-tarts, I always have toast in the morning."

"Ah, they make the loaves smaller, you see, but pump in a little extra air to inflate it between the bread holes and make the slices thinner so when it eventually deflates from the constant jostling and opening it seems like there are more slices to give you the impression of more bread!"

"Nobody official would ever allow that through and nobody is as devious-minded as you to try that!" Both the girls paused. 'Nobody is as devious-minded as you'?

"We've known each other for less than an hour and already you can read me like a book. Like we're meant to be." Konata fluttered her pretty green eyes, making Kagami reel back in shock not just from the implication, but because wow was that cute.

"I'm going to march down to his office and let him have a piece of my mind, he's the reason my weight is so out of control!" The door slammed unnoticed.

The waiter sat the girls when Konata finally called for it, giving them a comfortable booth near the arcade, as Konata specified. Kagami chose to thrill herself with the selections from the menu, but she already knew what she wanted. She was fairly plain whenever she came to a place as simple as this. So, when the menu stopped being interesting, she chose to watch Konata across from her. The silence was fairly calm, but it still felt very awkward. She was actually glad they had that little argument earlier, otherwise the ice wouldn't have been so easily broken.

Konata didn't seem to notice her, so she continued to watch her. She was pretty, and must have taken very good care of herself since she could stand to keep her hair so incredibly long. Her skin looked smooth, and she had a soft tan going from, Kagami assumed, her job. It only made her aware of how pale she was herself. She didn't get out too much, preferring the indoors, and liked to keep foot-shopping a minimum otherwise it felt like a waste of time. "Konata?"

Konata's ear twitched, something that made Kagami hold her mouth so she didn't spit from how endearing the action was, like a little dog. Or a fox. "One moment; with traditional garlic-butter sauce and spaghetti sauce with a like sprinkling of various herbs… Odd how they say 'various herbs'."

"I promise they won't poison you, that's a good dish." Kagami smirked. Konata looked up, and smiled back.

"I suppose, you don't make business by killing people. Unless that's your business. Anyways, what's up?"

"I showed up fifteen minutes early and you were still here before me, how long had you been there?" Kagami watched her date curiously as Konata gently opened up a small packet of salt and opened it on a little side plate, and began to draw little patterns into it.

"Only about ten minutes." She answered, making a clown.

"You were going to wait ahead for twenty-five minutes?" Kagami's eyes widened just a bit. "Why?"

"I was excited." Kagami's heart skipped half a beat, then she calmed herself down. "When I get excited I can't stop myself from moving around. I didn't want to wait an hour after getting ready so I went and walked down here. Then you showed up and tried to murder me with your big butt!" Her grin was mischievous again.

Kagami felt her skin crawl, and the need to argue that her butt was perfectly fine and was not big rose, but she calmed it down. "Is my butt really big?"

Konata's head cocked to the right, and she raised a hand, holding the palm flat to the surface of the table, and wiggled it. "Bigger than your average girl's, but sexy big, not uncomfortably big." Kagami found herself touching her rump again, her face a little red. "I thought it was nice."

"O-oh?" Kagami's eyes fluttered, and she smiled. "That's good." Their conversation was interrupted when the waiter came by and took their orders, leaving the two to sit in silence again. Kagami didn't like it when a conversation went quiet while she was engaged in it. She felt like something had to be said, or she was boring. "So… Um…"

"How was the whiskey?" Kagami looked straight up to Konata, who was watching her back.

"The whiskey?" Konata nodded. "Oh, from the party." Konata nodded again. "I-" Kagami paused, remembering she never actually drank any and wasn't interested in trying any after seeing how horny it made Tsukasa and Miyuki. She was really glad she hadn't stuck around for the after show, but as far as she picked up Tsukasa and Miyuki hadn't done anything. Miyuki probably just ended up getting sick in the bathroom. "To be honest, I never tried any. I don't drink."

"Huh." Konata nodded slowly, sipping her coke. "That a moral thing or are you just a pussy?"

"You-" Kagami's eyes fluttered a little in disbelief, before she gathered herself. "You can't call a girl that! We actually have those!" Konata shrugged, and Kagami sighed. "No, it's neither. I don't like the taste and yeah it makes me happy and relaxed but I get hangovers real easily." She didn't want to add how she and Tsukasa shared a very similar, randy drinking trait that left her wishing she'd drank more to forget what had happened.

"Mm. I feel the same." Konata said after a moment. "I like the taste but I hate it because if I drink I can't really stop myself, and unless I'm drinking with people I get really depressed, and if I'm drinking with people I wake up feeling weird, usually with somebody in bed with me, and I can never tell if there was sex or not." Konata shook her head. Kagami blushed, and it only grew as she thought about it.

"But you don't drink a lot, right?"

"Nope, only if I'm feeling really really sad." Kagami didn't follow Konata's statement. They watched each other with slight awkwardness for a few moments, when mercifully, the waiter came by baring food. Konata dug into her cheesy pasta dish as Kagami very politely worked on her potato salad. As was normal for the Arcade's food, it was delicious.

They were quiet throughout the whole meal, but their eyes met a lot. Neither of them wanted to interrupt the meal, though they were still curious about the other. When their eyes met, Kagami would look away suddenly, her face burning to be caught watching the other, but Konata's merely sparkled with amusement and kept right on looking at Kagami. "You look like you cleaned up a lot." Konata finally said, making Kagami look up.

"What do you mean?" Kagami nearly lost the salad on her fork from her lack of attention.

"Your hair looks prettier than I remember." Her eyes roamed over Kagami's face until Kagami tightened her lips in embarrassment. "And your skin is a lot more - how do I say this? Soft? Smooth? Opened up?" Konata guessed, nibbling on her fork while Kagami fretted softly.

"I went out yesterday to get ready for the date today." She admitted with a tiny blush. "I went to a hair-care specialist and then a skin-care specialist, and stopped for a manicure and a pedicure, then got new clothes."

Konata gulped down her pasta and nodded. "You went all out for this?" She did not show it, but she was touched, and curious as to why she would.

"I haven't been on a date in a long time." Kagami finally admitted, poking her food with her fork, her eyes downcast to avoid Konata's gaze. "I, uh, I don't want to sound weird but I'm not looking for a pick-up or anything. I kind of want this to work out." Because she wasn't watching, she couldn't see Konata's smile.

"You're a different sort of girl Kagami." Kagami hoped that was a good thing.

* * *

><p>Dinner was finished, the bill was paid, and a trip to the bathroom was taken before Kagami finally followed Konata into the back room where all the arcade stuff was. The room was dark, with only a few lit lamps and flashing screens to serve as navigating light, and was partially the reason Kagami didn't trust the arcade. With so many corners she felt like she could just walk around and get grabbed from no where and nobody would notice. It was also so loud with the game sounds she could barely hear herself think. She was visibly uncomfortable walking in, though she could tell the odd air, the flashing lights, the sounds of lasers flying, cars speeding, and polygons fighting only electrified Konata.<p>

"Heaven…" The little blue-haired thing whispered out loud, her eyes closing slowly as she took a deep breath through her nose and sighed happily. Curiously, Kagami did the same, and immediately began to spit and cough. "Huh? Swallow your spit wrong?" Konata glanced to her date.

"No! God, it smells like dirt and sweat and electricity in here!" Kagami growled, rubbing her nose as she restricted her breathing through her mouth.

"Oh, yeah, it's pretty bad but it tells me something." Konata's smile grew even more catlike as Kagami stared down at her. "There are games to be played and points to be won, challengers to be vanquished and princesses to be saved! We have planets to watch over Kagami! You and me, together, shall _save the world!"_

"You know, it figures the cutest one would be the crazy one." Kagami snorted, but Konata did not pay her heed. Despite being all but dragged along, Kagami found Konata's energy to be infectious. Maybe it wouldn't be so bad. So long as she had Konata by her side and didn't wander off alone…

"Uh, Konata, I can pay for that." Konata stopped from putting the dollar in the change machine to look to Kagami. "Really, I don't mind. I asked for the date, I should be paying." Konata stared at her with an odd expression as Kagami plugged in quite a bit of money to get them a lot of quarters. They actually needed to take one of the provided bags to carry it all. Kagami seemed happy with herself, while Konata shook the bag of jingling cash.

"You didn't have to do that. I didn't think we'd be here long." Konata frowned some while staring at the coins.

"Well, I'm kinda bad at video games, so let's say they're my extra lives or whatever." Konata paused, and Kagami stopped a step or two after to look to Konata curiously.

"You already paid for the meal though, and that wasn't cheap." The shorter girl pointed out softly as Kagami shrugged.

"I don't mind. Like I said, I asked for the date, I should be paying for it." Kagami's small was a little stiff. She was hoping Konata would not somehow take offense to this.

"So you're not just throwing money at me to impress me?" Konata cocked her head slightly.

"Well, I mean, I have some extra cash lying around but I just didn't know how much we'd be playing. I can turn the extra back into dollars later." That seemed to satisfy Konata into walking again. Kagami was worried that she'd disappointed the blunette, and wondered if she should have thrown money around. Was she into that? Did she want money? She was in a delivery business so maybe she was looking for more. She could say she was working for the big pharmaceutical company in the city, that may impress her…

"Ah! The second Time Crisis!" Kagami snapped back to reality the instant Konata left her side to check the machine in front of her. Konata carefully examined the whole thing, eyeing the screen and testing the plastic guns. "Looks to be in good condition too! It's such a pity so many people would let such wonderful relics rust away…" She hugged the big black box, and Kagami couldn't help but give a small smile. "Kagami!" Kagami jumped as Konata turned on her. "We're going to make it to the final boss!"

"We are?" Kagami blinked as Konata took ahold of the open front of her jacket and shook it.

"We must! In honor of all the lost arcade machines we must play through this entire game!"

"Are you sure? There's a neat virtual reality machine in the-"

"No, Kagami!" Konata threw her arm out, looking absolutely pumped. "The new can wait! We must honor our elders before we take pleasure in the new." Maybe it was because the light above them overloaded, but Kagami was briefly awestruck as Konata actually began to glow.

"Do you have to say it so weird? Fine, fine, let's beat this game. Can't be that bad." She picked up the other gun and put in quarters for the both of them. Only five minutes in and Kagami could see the vast difference skill between the two of them. "Konata, I think this might be the cheesiest game ever."

Konata didn't pay her any heed. She fired rapidly, but accurately, always aiming for the head whether it mattered or not. She had quick reflexes and equally fast fingers. Kagami's shots had a tendency to be wild and she just aimed for an area and emptied the clip as fast as she could. "How are you so good at this!" She finally asked Konata when she lost her third life and put in a few more quarters.

"A master was a pupil to the arts once in her life!" Konata shouted, cackling with glee as she tore a room apart. Kagami stared, dumbstruck during a non-action scene at the girl. "Practice." Konata finally clarified with a snicker.

"I get that, I just don't understand why you say crazy things…" Maybe it was just because she'd been blocking it out before, but Konata was definitely an odd duck. Being so good at this game only compounded on that.

"How many quarters left?" Konata asked as the final cut scene played twenty minutes later. Kagami opened the bag and checked, counting them mentally.

"About sixteen dollars worth. Why?" Kagami looked up to see Konata pointing rather proudly at a machine, and to Kagami's horror, it was Dance Dance Revolution. "Oh no…" She shook her head rapidly. "No Konata, I can't do that, I have no rhythm and I can't dance and I'm wearing a skirt!" She babbled quickly, even as Konata dragged her to the machine and put her on a dance pad. "Konata I can't do this!"

"Then we'll start slow." Konata popped in a quarter.

"No, Konata, I really can't do DDR!" Kagami whined, frozen in place as Konata put in a second.

"Have you ever tried?" Konata asked, holding up two more quarters and inserting them, the game screen telling them player one was ready.

"I've tried to dance before and I'm crap at it. I'm really clumsy." Kagami shuffled meekly as Konata began to pay for her pad as well.

"It's not like dancing, you just jump and move your feet. Which is sort of like dancing but the instructions are easy and on the screen." Konata was still holding the quarters, but she had a small smile of victory going on.

"I'm still wearing a skirt…" Kagami blushed as she pointed out, and nearly screamed as a bare hand touched her outer thigh, and she stared as Konata ran her hand up her skirt and looped one finger through her panty-string.

"You're wearing underwear, what's the big problem?" She let go, and Kagami stood there with her heart pounding and her face red as a beet.

"The _problem! _The problem is I'm surrounded by men and one short blue-headed pervert who want to feel me and see my panties!" She trembled in embarrassment and frustration as Konata calmly flipped a quarter between her fingers.

"So you won't play then?" Konata asked, making Kagami snort.

"No I will not play!" Her voice was defiant, and she crossed her arms to show Konata who was the boss here and who would be listened to.

And then she nearly fell when Konata added: "Not even if I offered my panties?" Kagami began to sputter, her mind exploding with confusing thoughts and feelings. "Let me elaborate. You play the game with me and win, and I'll give you these." Kagami's blush grew to a much louder red, and her heart began to beat until she thought it would kill her as Konata lifted her skirt up a little with her thumbs and bent over, pushing her own undies down to her feet, and she stepped out of them. Holding the blue, stainless panties in front of her, out to Kagami, her smile grew. "Fair?"

"Th-that's…" Kagami could feel a little blood trickle down her lip. "So indecent…" Her voice wavered, and oddly enough the only reason she even felt so embarrassed was because they were somewhere public.

"Yes or no, Kagami, the offer might expire if you don't answer in the allotted time…"

"K-kona-nata, you shouldn't… You could get…" Her voice trailed off as she stared. Under that little skirt her date was wearing, she was officially wearing nothing.

"Tick-tock Kaga~min…"

Kagami stood, chewing her lip in thought. "O-okay…" Konata's smile turned enormously confident as she rested the panties on the quarter slot, and started putting the quarters in. During this time, Kagami shakily pulled her jacket off and set it on the guard-rail behind her, revealing the top she was wearing didn't even have shoulder-straps. She felt even more embarrassed but this was nothing compared to what Konata was now (not) wearing. She shuddered in both embarrassment and need as Konata, acting as if nothing was wrong, hopped to each of her buttons, selecting a medium speed song.

"Focus on the screen, Kagamin, and don't lose step. Remember, it's just a game." She smiled and turned as the arrows began to scroll. "With a prize." Her smile was full of cute little teeth as she began to hop and play.

Oh did Kagami ever want to look. She watched the screen intently, doing as the arrows instructed her to do with a numb body. She was so intent on not watching Konata's legs and skirt she wasn't even sure if she was doing good or not. She actually didn't care just so long as she did not invade Konata's sacred privacy with her heathen eyes. She stopped in confusion when the arrows stopped scrolling, and she only got it when the scores came up. "Player 1 wins!" The game announced.

Kagami snapped out of her intense focus to see the scores. Konata proudly sported a 99%. She looked to Konata, who was giggling softly, and turned to look at her score. 36%. "I knew I sucked…" Kagami sighed, still blushing. She felt something soft in her hand, and held it up to see… Blue panties. "Hwaaugh!" She wiggled her hand, trying to remove them but they were held tightly between her fingers. "I didn't win! What the hell!" She held the undies out, making Konata giggle.

"You did win: over your embarrassment." Konata giggled cutely as Kagami stared around, noticing the gathering crowd and _oh god she was still holding them._ She ran. She was a fast runner, and she was still bothered enough to not notice she was holding onto Konata the entire time.

She didn't know how much she ran or how many corners she turned or how many people she blew out of the way, but when she finally paused inbetween a few racing games and leaned over to hold her knees and catch her breath, she noticed that along the way she'd stepped out of her shoes. "Oh God Damnit…" She whispered, wiggling her socked toes with a heavy sigh.

"You lost your shoes?" Konata asked, equally winded as she sat and leaned against one of the machines, looking amused at Kagami. The lilacette nodded, making Konata chuckle. "At least you didn't lose my undies."

Kagami paused, then held up the underwear in her hand and stared at it for several long seconds. It took her a moment to come back to her senses. "Why am I still holding these!" She finally shouted, trying to shake them off again without much success. Konata began to giggle hysterically at the sight, much to Kagami's ever increasing annoyance before she finally got them to the tips of her fingers and dropped them onto Konata's head. "Ugh, so many people saw that." She whined while leaning against one of the game boxes.

"Exciting, wasn't it?" Kagami narrowed her eyes at the hugely smiling girl. "Ever get looked at so much? With those pretty shoulders up there, you were the star of the night!" Konata said with a wave of her little hands and a giggle.

"They were probably just there for the girl in the skirt and no panties." Kagami growled, making Konata giggle happily. "You're insane, you know that? Getting so bare in a public place and bragging about drawing a crowd! And what sort of crap is 'winning over your embarrassment'! I didn't win over it, I just got so embarrassed I had to run until I lost myself in who knows where the heck we are!" Konata sat with her legs crossed, smiling as Kagami ranted. "And on top of that I forgot my jacket, I lost my shoes, and goodness I think I lost my dignity when I got seen holding-" She waved an arm out, a pair of blue panties strung around her elbow, "-panties!" Konata began to squeal with laughter, her trick working as Kagami began to dance around again, waving her arm like a maniac.

Konata watched her finally get ahold of the clothing again, then stood, holding the bag of quarters. "At least we didn't lose your money." Kagami set her dark sights on her, and Konata's smile quickly grew nervous as she raised her hands. "I mean it's not all bad! We still have your money, right?" Kagami's eyes narrowed, but she lost the killer glare at least, making Konata sigh in relief. "C'mon, I'll go announce that we need those things looked out for, and while we wait we can play games."

"I think I've had enough games for now, Konata…" Kagami sighed while the nearly naked girl near her tittered.

"We can play something you'll like! Something you'll be good at!" Konata's grin was promising.

"Farmville?" Kagami asked dryly, making Konata snort and take her hand to lead her away. "Don't you want your underwear back?" She finally asked, realizing, once more, what she was holding.

"Nope, they're yours to keep. Give them back and I'll cry." Kagami didn't want to see her cry, so with a heavy groan she kept ahold of them. They stopped by the prize counter first so Konata could put the word out they were looking for a jacket and a pair of shoes, then Konata bought Kagami a coke to apologize and calm her down. Getting something cold in her did calm her down, and she had to admit, Konata was pleasant when she was helpful. When Konata finished off her potato chips and Kagami tossed away her cup, she was lead back into the maze of games again, avoiding every gaze she possibly could since word spread quickly about the DDR chicks. "Here we are." Konata announced, brimming with energy as Kagami looked up.

"Guitar Hero?" She stared at the sign questioningly, and Konata nodded happily as she hopped up to the platform and took ahold of a plastic guitar. "We've already played Guitar Hero together though." She reminded Konata as the blue-haired shorty began to test the buttons and the switch.

"Right, but we played Guitar Hero before we officially met. We played Guitar Hero when I was too beautiful for words and I was too busy trying to figure out if you recognized me or not. We're going to play again, no distractions!" Konata pumped her arm, making Kagami sigh. She was quite the ferocious little beast, though at least this was something she knew. She picked up her own guitar and paid for her to play. "Oh, Kagami!" Kagami turned towards the curious girl, who was tugging her shirt. "I was curious. Now that I think about it, how did you get so good at Guitar Hero? You ever go to a contest?" She asked, smiling a little.

"Um, no, afraid not. I just play an actual guitar and, y'know, it's different but not too different." She noted the way Konata's jaw dropped just a little.

"You play guitar for real? I mean like an actual guitar?" Kagami nodded slowly. "Acoustic or electric?"

"Electric. Lead guitar. My twin sister does the bass." She answered, making Konata twitch, a small bloom of red appearing across her face.

"That is…" She seemed almost breathless. "That is so awesome! A guitar playing twin too, that's sexy…" She giggled as Kagami's eyes narrowed tightly. "Why would a girl like you play lead guitar though? You don't seem like the sort. Are you even in a band?"

"Oh, yeah, and I got into it because of my sister, actually." Konata nodded for her to go on, and started to select their song. "I really wasn't a music person before but she was, and she started to play bass and," she paused, pursed her lips, and shrugged, "convinced me to learn alongside her. We didn't choose the same guitar though so we wouldn't outshine one another."

Konata's smile grew. "That is really cool. No really, it is, and this is coming from the gamer chick wearing no undies." She cackled loudly, making Kagami cringe and move a step away.

"Short little freak…" She muttered under her breath, still smiling as they began to play. They didn't look at each other throughout the whole song, but there was a lot of friendly chatter. Konata loved to hop around and be super dramatic while she played, but it cost her points as the jostling made her fingers lose their place and slow her reaction time. Konata paid Kagami some attention and noticed how relaxed she was as she played. She moved and shifted, but mostly swayed to the beat without losing her finger placement. She bet that purple hair would look awesome flying around if she really let loose.

The song itself was fast-paced and set to Very Hard mode, making it a challenge to imagine Kagami's flailing hair and play at the same time. It was little surprise that when the song ended, and when the gathered crowd began to clap politely, that she'd hit an 82% to Kagami's 96%. "For somebody who just started the game, you're pretty good at it. Your hand-eye coordination is above par, especially since you 'suck' at video games. You're really well connected to yourself. That's admirable." Kagami only rolled her eyes and smiled.

"I'm just lucky I know guitar is all." Konata began to giggle. "Yeah yeah, yuck it up. Are you ready to go?"

"Yeah I'm good. Let's go see if they found your things."

* * *

><p>'You can only call me during the day Monday through Wednesday.' Konata had told her while making sure the underwear she'd lost was tied tightly around Kagami's upper arm like a bandana. The disguise would hold for now, but anyone who looked too close would notice the lace, as well as Kagami's blush. 'And nights on Thursday and Friday. I'm free on the weekend, so don't worry about time then.'<p>

Kagami did not glow. Most people didn't, unless they were hit by a tazer. So, maybe it was the way the moon hit her newly conditioned hair, or how red her skin was from joy, but passer-bys were briefly awe-struck as she all but glowed her way down the street, beaming like nobody's business. Despite the embarrassment, despite the awkwardness, despite the teasing and the small fights and the taking of clothing and the baring of shoulders, Kagami had a good time. It had even ended on a good note, as her jacket and shoes had been turned in minutes before they asked.

So the last few days were worth the aches and pains, and the stress in her mind was only partially alleviated, but she felt like walking the clouds. Her eyes closed peacefully on the bus, thinking about the night. She and Konata hadn't done much more than grab onto each other and run around, but still, that might have been for the best. In her mind, it showed she wasn't after the little blue-head for just her body, which was more noble in her mind. Seeing herself as a paragon of love and relationships was not only easy to do, but fun to do.

She climbed out of the bus, and actually began to hum in pleasure as she walked upstairs to her apartment, and opened it with a tiny twirl.

She was not expecting to find Tsukasa waiting on the other side. "Tsukasa?" Even as she spoke her name, her smile was enormous, making Tsukasa's hard stare soften. "What are you doing up?" She asked curiously, her smile shrinking as she began to remember the conversation they'd had earlier.

Tsukasa was quiet, her mouth fidgeting as she tried to work up what to say. The two sisters stared at each other quietly. "Waiting for you to get home so you would tell me where you were and why you went to get your body taken care of." She finally said, trying to take a stern tone, but she only sounded desperate for an answer. Though Kagami's smile was full of apology, Tsukasa maintained her strong stance.

"Tsukasa, um, big sis has big news, and if you'll give me a moment I'll tell you." Tsukasa stayed, but backed down after a few moments. She retreated to her beanbag chair and watched Kagami shut and lock the door, set her purse down, pull the pigtails out of her hair to let it lay long like a drape, take off her jacket and set her shoes and socks to the side, and untie a pair of…

"Are those…" Tsukasa's voice went high and tight as Kagami finally realized what exactly she was taking off her arm in front of her sister. "Are those _panties!" _Tsukasa squeaked, while Kagami's face turned a bright, cherry shade of red as she tossed them under the table to hide them. Tsukasa actually began to twitch, making small choking noises as Kagami attempted to defend herself.

"It's not what it looks like, I didn't sleep with anyone tonight!"

"S-sis has p-panties…" Tsukasa murmured, staring from Kagami to the hidden blue cloth.

"I- okay, lemme start from the beginning." She was about to open her mouth and blab about her dream and the girl in it, until she self-checked herself and started at a more sensible place. "I won them off of my date." Tsukasa's eyes grew wide as she stared into Kagami's, and Kagami decided that she should have started earlier still. "Okay, I met a girl at Shinji's party. She's really cute, totally my type, really nice and energetic, and we decided to go on a date. Simple, right?" She offered, her hands raised with a tiny, hopeful smile.

Her smile twitched as Tsukasa reached under the table and pulled out the panties, and strung them in front of Kagami's face. "No it is not!" Was her defiant answer.

"Oh, right, the underwear, well see she was trying to get me to play DDR 'cause you know how embarrassed I am about dancing so she offered me her panties as compensation so she took them off and-"

"Did you get a good look?" Tsukasa interjected rather suddenly, her face serious.

"I-" Kagami froze. They stared at each other for a while, before Tsukasa's serious face went away.

"Maybe you should tell me the details. That might help." So Kagami did. She told her about Shinji's party, about how they played each other, how attractive Konata was, what she looked like, what she acted like, meeting up at her office and popping the question, dinner, games, the panty incident, how, despite suffering from raging embarrassment, Konata had dragged her in front of a growing crowd twice in clothing she'd never intended to wear ever again, she was happy and felt she'd had a good night. Tsukasa's face was trustful, understanding, and the whole time she nodded.

By the end of the story, Tsukasa was comfortable enough to open a can and sip at it. "Are you sure you can go through with this sis?" She asked after letting several seconds of silence brew between them, and Kagami calmly rubbed her arm.

"I think so. I really liked hanging out with her, and she was crazy but fun crazy."

"Even after your last break-up?" Kagami stiffened, but nodded at her. "You're sure?"

"I think so. No, I'm very sure of this." Kagami smiled. She felt sure, and she felt strong. "You think I can do this, don't you?" She pressed her sister.

Tsukasa sat quietly for a moment, gently stirring the liquid in her can with a soft rocking of her hand, then took a deep breath and sighed. "Kagami, I think you can make this decision without me. That said, be careful with this girl. It sounds like you really like her, and I want you to be happy, so I'm going to tell you what I think you're doing wrong if it comes up." Tsukasa had a mentor's look, despite the booze entering her system, and glanced away with a soft expression. "I love you sis, I just hope she knows what she's getting into."

"What do you mean by that?" Kagami's eyes lit up in surprise as her sister stood and went to the bedroom, tossing the can away.

"I just mean that you can be difficult sometimes. Night Kagami." Tsukasa shut the door quietly, and Kagami watched at the door sadly. "Um… Night Tsukasa…" Kagami mumbled after her. 'Knows what she's getting into?' She asked herself, staring at Tsukasa's door. She shrugged it off, assuming, or rather hoping Tsukasa was just being mysterious as she clicked off the lights.

* * *

><p>I hadn't meant to take this long to get the third chapter in, but I've been busy handling graduation stuff at my highschool, leaving me too tired to want to write the story. After it died down I got into a writing method I like where I do a little at a time over the course of a few days rather than large chunks at a time, but I'm afraid it might steal the quality of the chapter as a whole, so any constructive criticisms would be especially nice for this chapter.<p>

As for the rest of the week, I may not be able to pump out another chapter anytime soon since I'll be getting my wisdom teeth stolen from me by a crazed dentist. Or something like that. Anyways, pain does not influence writing so don't expect much after Friday.

As always, thank you for reading, you guys are awesome.


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